Netherlands coach Gido Vermeulen talks to his players
Ceske Budejovice, Czech Republic, June 9, 2017 - Netherlands coach Gido Vermeulen praised his team after the Dutch claimed a 3-1 (22-25, 25-22, 25-23, 25-18) victory against Portugal in their first match in 2017 FIVB Volleyball World League Group 2 Pool F2 on Friday.
Vermeulen said: "It was a solid game; we were of course not happy after we lost the first set - what we did at the end of the set, it should not be happening again. However the match was in our hands after that and it was also a nice game."
Netherlands captain Jasper Diefenbach said: "In the beginning Portugal played a better side-out game, we had a lot of problems with their floating serves. They played well in reception, it was a close and tight set. The second set was the same story but in our favour. We made a good substitution at the end of the set and equalled the score. I am very happy that we could make it to victory after two losses last week and I wish Portugal good luck in their other matches."
Portugal captain Alexandre Ferreira said: "The main difference today was in stability on serve. The Netherlands caused us a lot of problems: one guy had a jumped serve, all others floating serves and they really put us under pressure. Even if we won the first set, we made a lot of mistakes during the match. On the other hand, we have a very young team with a lot of potential and if we can do some basic things without mistakes, we can be a real opponent to all the big teams - not just the Netherlands."
Quick links - Volleyball:Match Centre: Netherlands v Portugal
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Portugal coach Hugo Silva said: "In the first set we played very well, but it was just the first set and it was not enough to win the whole match. We did not have enough concentration in important moments which was crucial in the end of the second and third sets. If we had been able to manage these difficult moments, our match could have been completely different. We have to concentrate now on tomorrow's match against Egypt."
Matches on Saturday: