Katowice, Poland, June 15, 2017 - Russia defeated the hosts in straight sets on the first day of the FIVB Volleyball World League tournament in Poland 3-0 (25-22, 25-17, 25-21). The MVP of the match was Dmytry Volkov who scored 13 points.
Russia coach, Sergey Shlyapnikov - "We defeated the problems with our players' health, which I mentioned during yesterday's press conference, and got the victory. We always believe in the maximum possible win and we are concentrated before every game. Vlasov is injured and we cannot say if he will be able to play in the next games.”
Russia captain, Dmitry Kovalev - "We are happy with the victory. The win cannot be judged, but honestly the size of the victory is a surprise.”
Poland coach, Ferdinando De Giorgi - "I am very, very disappointed with our performance tonight. We lost in a really bad way in front of our supporters. The match was more than bad and there is no excuse for it. In the first set we had a chance and we tried to fight. For now, the most important thing is to restore our balance and forget about today's match. Our next goal is the victory on Saturday.”
Poland middle blocker, Mateusz Bieniek - “Russia served really well today. Let’s be honest – the rivals did not let us do anything today. This is not how we wanted this to be. We want to say sorry to our fans because they created a fantastic atmosphere in the hall, but we played below our expectations. Everything is in our hands and we want to get to the Final Six.”
Matches on Friday
