Thessaloniki, Greece, June 26, 2016 - Hosts Greece put a silver lining to their qualification to the Group 3 Final Four, after beating Slovenia 3-1 sets (25-23, 22-25, 25-21, 29-27) at Alexandrio Melathro, thus making certain the rematch of the two sides in Frankfurt’s semifinals, in five days’ time.
Greece head coach, Sotiris Drikos: We achieved an important goal and qualify to the Final Four, despite the fact we played without our starting setter Filippov and our second opposite, Tzioumakas. I must congratulate my players for all their effort. The most beautiful part is that there will be quite a few Greek immigrants in Frankfurt and we will try to make them happy.
Greece player, Giorgos Petreas: Our first mission has been accomplished and we are happy to continue in the World League. The next step, apart from doing well in the Final Four, will be to have good results in the European Championship qualification round too.
Slovenia head coach, Andrea Giani: We made a lot of mistakes tonight. The semifinal against Greece will be a totally different game. Mitar Djuric is a very good player, but the team as a whole is what matters the most.
S
lovenia team captain, Tine Urnaut: We weren’t constant in our game and we didn’t pick our chances, when we had the possibilities to do so. Congratulations to Greece for their victory. The Final Four will be a high-quality tournament. We want to play our best volleyball there. We won’t think about our winning options, we will only think about the semifinal and I hope that we will beat Greece this time.