Kraków, Poland, July 17, 2016 – For the first time in history Serbia won the World League after a three-set battle against Brazil 3-0 (25-22,25-22, 25-21).
Nikola Grbic, coach of Serbia: I want to congratulate my guys. All of them - my players, my staff, because they have supported me for three months, even I was sometime unsupportable. But that’s just me. I asked them to come here to the final and play like we played. I knew that we need to suffer a lot if we want to achieve it. I mean that every day we needed to practice very hard, much harder than we practiced the year before or ever. So that’s why I am saying it was hard to be with me every day. We reached the point when we practiced in the gym with 38 degrees. We managed to finish the practice after 2,5 hour and I said: you will remember this moment when we arrive there. I’m proud of the team, because they trusted me, had faith in me and followed me. I just want to say thanks.
Bernardo Rezende, coach of Brazil: Serbia deserved only compliments, their coach for the tactics which he choose. It’s hard to say something about the match. In three sets we made more mistakes than in two matches. I want to say sorry to fans and to guys who worked so hard, I have to made a mistake somewhere. Our main goal is the Olympic Games, so now we need to think about the good things and learn from our mistakes. Thank you Poland, thank you for the hospitality, this week was amazing. Kraków is a great city. Katowice was our hometown, but we also met fantastic people here – thank you.
Dragan Stankovic, captain of Serbia: What can I say? It’s difficult to beat Brazil in any competition, so the three-zero is a special result. We played the final also last year. I remember that we were relaxed, we were laughing and we lost 3-0. This year I saw we learned something from that match and this time we entered the court with serious faces and fought for every point. I saw from the second set, that we were ready to win the gold medal for the first time. I want to congratulate my teammates, they pulled every last bit of strength they had left after the tough game against Italy.
Bruno Rezende, captain of Brazil: Congratulations to Serbian team. They played really well, much better than us. They put pressure and we made so many mistakes under this pressure. It was the key for the game. Now we need to come back home and improve our game.