The Finnish men’s national volleyball team beat Croatia in three sets in their first match of the European Championship. On Thursday, Finland will face Bulgaria, which is recovering from a defeat, and has the support of the home crowd.
Riku Porvari,
Petri Sjöblom
The European Volleyball Men’s Championship will be played from August 28 to September 16. In Italy, Bulgaria, North Macedonia and Israel. shows all Finnish matches and the most interesting games of the games on TV2 and Areena.
The Finnish men’s national volleyball team started the European Championship exactly as it should. It was thought in advance that Croatia is an opponent that Finland must beat. The three points came almost in showmanship, as Croatia fell in three sets, 25–19, 25–19, 25–22.
Urheilu’s volleyball expert Timo Tolvanen to incense the passari Eemi Terportttia. The Finnish captain, who played the 250th match of his national team career, ripped the wonderful performances from his teammates.
– Actually, every Finnish attacker succeeded brilliantly, and the points were distributed really evenly between them. It usually tells about the goodness of the passar, Tolvanen describes.
Chopper Joonas Jokela 12 points were recorded, from general players To Luka Marttila stamped 11 and Niko Suihkonen 10 points.
– Young boys, but quite strong already. It’s great to throw passes when you have the enthusiasm of youth, 34-year-old Terportorti expressed the mood after the match.
In addition to those who hit the ball on the field, the middle defenders were successful in the Croatia match Alexei Zhbankov20 years, and Miika Haapaniemi19. Tolvanen admits that he was initially suspicious of the youngsters playing in their first prestigious tournament.
– Both midfielders played really well. After a great victory, it’s nice to list successes, says Tolvanen.
A young and inexperienced team
Aleksei Zhbankov was all smiles after the opening victory. He admits that he was a little nervous about the match, but after a couple of balls he calmed down.
– There were so many Finnish fans that I didn’t even notice that we were playing abroad. The first European Championship game for me and many other players. You can’t ask for much more from a debut.
Finland plays its opening group in Varna, Bulgaria. There were approximately 2,000 Finnish supporters at the opening match.
– Nice Finns, probably more than in home games in the Golden League, said the woodcutter Jokela.
Also the head coach of Finland Joel Banks was very satisfied with the Croatia match. According to him, Finland’s young and inexperienced team proved to be competitive.
– Starting the tournament in this way is fantastic. A 3-0 win on the opening day is also a dream come true, Banks said after the match.
At the same time, however, Banks wanted to defuse the situation. According to him, deciding the game in three sets was “the icing on the cake” – it was more important to win.
The same is the opinion of expert Tolvanen, who says that Finland needs to focus very quickly on Thursday’s match with Bulgaria.
– I myself have been in these situations as a player and coach. The team should not be pampered with their good moves now. In addition, the tempo of the tournament is so tight that maintenance and feedback must be done really well.
Internalized Bulgaria
Playing in front of their home crowd, Bulgaria lost 1-3 to Spain in their European Championship opener. Tolvanen says that on Thursday, Finland will face a team that has collected anger.
– Bulgaria is a significantly more physical team than Croatia. When their passing game hits the box, it causes pain for Finland in reception. The way Finland handles its own good game will have a lot of influence on the match against Bulgaria.
Head coach Banks says that Bulgaria’s loss was the worst possible result for Finland.
– We expect a terrible, heavy and terrible atmosphere. The home crowd is strongly in support of Bulgaria. It’s a new challenge for us, and Bulgaria has definitely settled in, Banks describes.
Captain Tervaportti says again that he expects a tight match.
– We have to be a good common wall and play our own dirty game. I believe that it will at least be able to poke at the combs.