Kraków, Poland, July 16, 2016 – Serbia advanced to the World League final for the second time in a row after overcoming Italy in five sets.
Nikola Grbic, coach of Serbia: I am obviously satisfied with the victory. There were ups and downs especially in the first set, when we led by 3-4 points and played good in block. Then Italy started serving float and made series of points, so they won at the end of the day. In the second set we were down in the late stage but with Luburic on the service line we scored a series of points and won. After that it was obvious that both teams could win and until the end the result was open.
Gianlorenzo Blengini, coach of Italy: Congratulations to Serbia for how they won this match, how they performed in the last stages of the sets and how they stayed in the game, fighting point by point, better than us. I think they played much better in the key moments. We made too many direct mistakes in the attack, so it was impossible to win in this way.
Dragan Stankovic, captain of Serbia: I would like to congratulate my team. We did more than 100% to win this game.
Emanuele Birarelli, captain of Italy: Congratulations to Serbia. I think they deserved to achieve the final. Of course I’m very disappointed, because we had a great opportunity to get to the final after many, many years. Crucial moments were in the second set and tie-break. We made too many stupid mistakes and it was impossible to win against a strong team like Serbia. We have a third-place match tomorrow. It's a medal match, it's important and we need to stay focused.
Uros Kovacevic, Serbia: It was a really tough match, I am still not aware that we play in the final. Italy are one of the best teams in the world, they have the best system and it resulted in the tie-break today. By winning this match in five sets we proved that we are valuable team. We never won the World League, even if we played six times in the final, but I hope that tomorrow will be a day when we finally do it.