Nancy, France, 2 July 2016 - France won a close match against Poland 3-1 (22-25 30-28 25-22 25-19) in Nancy on Saturday. Tonight's top scorer was Earvin Ngapeth with an impressive tally of 22 points.
Dawid Konarski, opposite player, Poland: The atmosphere wasn’t an issue for us. It’s like normal because we have the same kind of audience in Poland, it’s very nice, very good to play in front of so many people, and feel this atmosphere. It was a pleasure to play for us and for team France, and I think that it was a good game. Of course we lost but we played better than before. We should be happy that works step by step, we play a little bit better. Congratulations of course to France who played a very good game!
Michal Kubiak, captain, Poland: This defeat against France isn't a frustration, it’s the kind of thing we don’t like, to lose obviously, nobody does. But in my opinion it was our best game in this competition so far so, everything should go in the right direction and we are happy about that ! We don’t care so much about the result, but for us it seems like it doesn’t matter now. For us what matters is to get better and have a good progression. I can notice the great atmosphere of tonight’s game. It’s every time like that when you play against France, they have good players, we have good players so it’s gonna be like that everytime we compete against each other.
Earvin Ngapeth, wing-spiker, France: My legs are back. I’m feeling great. It took some time but now it’s ok, mind and body. I feel hungry to play again so that’s very good, we’re qualified for the Final Six, that’s very good too. Playing against teams like Poland or Brazil tomorrow, it sure makes us all play better, the whole team. We know it’s the best preparation we’ll get before the Olympics, so we have to take those games seriously, and to be on top of our game.
Thibault Rossard, opposite spiker, France: That kind of match brings me a lot of confidence, to be able to play that much, and to play well also! Because it’s not usually my position, I used to be outside-spiker, and playing in this position during a good amount of time and with good results, it clearly gives me tons of confidence, and it’s a good sign for later. We’re gonna try well against Brazil and get the first place of the group. Even If we’re already qualified we’re going to try to give a nice show to the audience. We want to have fun, and we want the audience to have fun too.