Saskatoon, Canada, June 25, 2016 - Portugal coach Francisco Santos blamed his side's high error count as they went down to China.
China captain, Shuai Jiao: “We played very good today. Their sub is very good, but our reception is also very good. That is why we react very good to their strong sub and we made preparation for the blocks. That’s why we win.”
China coach, Yang Liqun: “I’m satisfied with winning today. For the second set there are ups and downs and that’s why I put in some experienced players. But they play in the World Olympic Qualification Tournament so their physical condition is not at the very best level. But they recover gradually. They are doing great today.”
Portugal coach, Francisco Santos: “Our team committed a lot of errors. If we continue to make a lot of mistakes at this elite level, it will be very hard to win games. Our next match against Korea is also going to be a very difficult game. The players will have to play more as a team and not just by themselves. Portugal has already qualified for the final four so this is leading up to that.”
Portugal captain, Alexandre Ferreira: “We started with a different team today. It was not our first team, the coach wanted to change players a bit to rest the other players. I think if we start with our first team we can beat China. For our next match it will be more difficult because they are a more difficult team. Our target is to focus on the final four and try to fix our mistakes to get better each match. We will get to know each other because we are a new team and a lot of guys are new.”