The Czechs fought hard, but felt like lack of match fitness caught them out
Ceske Budejovice, June 17, 2016 – The Czech Republic’s coach Miguel Falasca said that his side’s lack of preparation was to blame as they narrowly lost 3-2 to Egypt (25-21, 22-25, 20-25, 25-22, 12-15) in a thrilling five-set World League match.
“I’m sorry we lost, because we started very well,” said Falasca. “We paid for fact that we didn’t play any preparation matches.”
Czech captain Ales Holubec added: “It was a tough fight, and I’m sorry that we didn’t win the tie break, because I’m convinced we were strong enough to beat Egypt. I want to thank to my team, because it wasn’t a bad performance for our first match of the international season.”
Egyptian coach Hassan Shehata said: “Before the match, we didn’t have any information. We knew from last year that Czech team is strong. But we were thinking about good and serve, which helped us to win.”
Egyptian captain Ashraf Abouelhassan added: “The team played a good match today. It was hard physically and tactically. Bravo to the team.”