Rafail Koumentakis at the serve during Greece's first match at 2016 World League
Kozani, Greece, June 17, 2016 - Hosts Greece beat Kazakhstan 3-0 (25-16, 28-26, 25-18) in their first match for the 2016 edition of the FIVB World League, as Group 3 - Leg 1 got under way at the Kozani New Sports Arena.
Sotiris Drikos, coach of Greece: “The first game of the 2016 World League was good for us. We performed well, especially in our side-out system, and also in our transition attack. We reached a very high percentage in attack, especially in the first and third set. Kazakhstan risked too much in the second set in their service and they created many problems to our pass”.
Rafail Gilyazutdinov, coach of Kazakhstan: “This game was just about psychology. We are strong, but we didn’t reach our level”.
Rafail Koumentakis, wing spiker of Greece: “It was a tough game for us because it was the first game we played here in front of our fans and we had a little bit of pressure. In the beginning we made a good start, but later on we started to go down. In the end we managed to win this very important game. The atmosphere at the hall was amazing, thank to all the fans”.