Finland needs a three-point win against Ukraine, which performed poorly, in its last match of the first group. Still, the place in the playoffs is tight and the results of the matches affect the group ranking.
Riku Porvari,
Jelena Leppänen
The European Volleyball Men’s Championship will be played from August 28 to September 16. shows all the matches in Finland and the most interesting games of the games. Ukraine-Finland on Monday live on TV2 and Areena from 17:15.
The Finnish men’s national volleyball team lost its third consecutive match at the European Championships on Sunday. Spain won in four sets 25–21, 19–25, 25–21, 25–23.
Finnish captain Eemi Terportti saddened by the bitter loss in terms of further games.
– We didn’t play well, so we didn’t deserve a win. Our passing game was pretty sloppy, and because of that we couldn’t get anything done with saves.
Finland’s general player Luka Marttila said that Finland played well in the match, but it was not enough. Finland, for example, led the fourth set at 22–21, but eventually succumbed to a two-point loss.
– That’s how it has gone in those other games as well, that all tight sets are lost. The head can’t hold or what is the reason? But that’s how it’s gone in every game.
Spain stronger in every area
Urheilu’s volleyball expert Mikko Esko notes that the reasons for the Spanish defeat are clearly visible in the statistics. Finland lost to Spain in every area.
For example, the Spanish hacker Andres Villena was 76% successful in its attacks and the wing forwards were also effective Francisco Iribarne (71%) and Jordi Ramon (59%).
– Those are too high readings. It was not only Spain’s goodness, but Finland’s blocking defense did not play as well as it should have, and what has been seen in previous games, Esko estimated.
From the Finns, Luka Marttila played a great match when he gave his team 20 offensive points with 74% efficiency. The others fell far short of their best when Samuli Kaislasalo (5 pts, 56 %), Joonas Jokela (9 pts, 41 %), Jiri Hänninen (7 pts, 39%) and Niko Suihkonen (3 pts, 38%) did not succeed.
– Luka Marttila was really alone at the offensive end. He played a top match, but one player’s top match is not enough to win, you need the support of others.
On Sunday evening, Croatia beat Bulgaria 3–1. However, Finland’s playoff dreams have not yet been dashed. On Monday, Finland will challenge Ukraine, which played poorly in the EC tournament.
– We are not going to give up. Let’s ruminate on this (defeat against Spain) for a while, but then we’ll turn our eyes to tomorrow. Everything is open, we have good chances to win and go on from this group, Terportorti stated on Sunday.
Finland’s group situation, the top four continue
Group placement is determined as follows: 1. Matches won, 2. points, 3. set ratio, 4. set point ratio and 5. head-to-head matches.
Group B matches:
Mon 4.9. at 5:30 p.m FINLAND-Ukraine, at 20:30 Croatia-Slovenia
Tue 5.9. at 17:30 Spain-Ukraine, at 20:30 Bulgaria-Slovenia
Future dreams are tight
If Finland beats Ukraine by three points (differing 3–0 or 3–1), and the other matches in the group end favorably, Spain and Bulgaria can still fall behind Finland.
Expert Esko says that the entire Finnish team must succeed in the match against Ukraine. Especially from the hacker and general players, better than before is required.
– Ukraine has not been convincing in any way in this tournament. As Marttilakin said, you have to be able to win those tight games, because they will surely come against Ukraine as well.
According to Esko, Ukraine is the preliminary favorite for the match. He hopes that Finland gets a mental advantage from going into the game as an underdog.
– Let’s hope that the pressure will shift to the Ukrainian side, because they need two wins to continue.