Finland extended the Olympic qualifying match against Turkey to the fifth round. However, Finland did not get any points with its own passes in the tiebreaker.
The Finnish men’s national volleyball team stretched the Olympic qualifying match against Turkey to five sets. Turkey won the first two sets, but Finland still fought for the win. However, Turkey was stronger in the fifth set with a score of 15–8.
The cut-off game was completely Turkey’s, as Finland did not get any points with their own passes in the end of the game.
– We didn’t play badly. Early game. We woke up a little late, from the Finnish team Luka Marttila described the match which started at 13:00 local time.
Marttila offered one of the biggest sports clichés as the reason for the decisive moments of the match.
– The opponent just wanted to win more, Marttila stated.
Finland has lost all five of its games in the qualifiers played in Tokyo. Finland played a five-set battle against Japan in the first match, but after that it was a cold ride.
Next, on Saturday at 7:00 a.m., Finland will face Tunisia, which has so far been without a set win in the Olympic qualifiers. In the final game on Sunday, they will face Egypt.
– There are quite a few games with an expected win. Now there really are those winnable games. You still can’t go out with your jacket open. Even the opponents know how to play, Marttila said.
Before the match, Finland was 29th in the world ranking, Turkey 15th.
Luka Marttila was interviewed by Toni Flink.
Sat 30.9. Finland–Japan 2–3
Sun 1.10. Finland–USA 0–3
Tue 3.10. Finland–Slovenia 1–3
Wed 4.10. Finland – Serbia 0–3
Fri 6.10. Finland – Turkey 2–3
Sat 7.10. Finland – Tunisia at 7:00 a.m
Sun 8.10. Finland – Egypt at 4:00
The two best of the group advance to the Olympics. You can see the situation in the block on teletext here.