Berlin – The German volleyball players took a lot of work with them when they moved from Estonia to the Czech Republic on Friday. After the faulty game against Slovakia, which was only won in the tiebreak, an increase in performance is necessary in the European Championship round of 16 on Sunday (7 p.m., Sport1 +) against Bulgaria in Ostrava if the journey is to continue.
“It’s not an easy lot,” commented DVV sports director Christian Dünnes. “But it was clear that we would get a very strong opponent.” The former national player sees the two opponents roughly on a par. “In the past we have played an extremely large number of tough games against Bulgaria and we often lost. We hope that this time it will turn out well for us. “
Charter flight of the volleyball players to Ostrava
The Slovakia game serves more as a warning. After a convincing European championship tournament with only one defeat against Olympic champion France, the team of national coach Andrea Giani made numerous mistakes in the fifth and final group game the evening before. “We had imagined it differently,” admitted top scorer Georg Grozer. “We have to analyze that and turn it off.”
Because in Ostrau, where the selection of the German Volleyball Association (DVV) landed after their charter flight, a different caliber is waiting. The third place in the table from the difficult pool B with the two top teams Italy and Slovenia, who so far has a 3-2 balance, enjoys the advantage that he is already at the scene of the action.
National coach Andrea Giani gives the young players working time
The Germans were able to draw self-confidence from their previous appearances. Above all, the serve turned out to be an effective weapon, apart from the crisis against Slovakia. On the offensive, they can again rely on diagonal attacker Grozer, who ended his career in the national team after failing to qualify for the Olympic Games in Tokyo 2020, but then felt like returning again.
When Giani let other regulars take a break against France in addition to the 36-year-old, the youngsters from the second row, like Grozer’s colleague Linus Weber, lived up to expectations and gave the favorite an exciting fight. Even before the European Championship, the Italian coach had announced that he would give as many players as possible in his squad opportunities to play. In addition to the wealth of variants, the former world-class player also has the future in mind. Overall, Giani concluded, the EM performance so far has to be rated “positive”.
Captain Christian Fromm sees his own team on course. “The last sixteen was the minimum goal,” said the 31-year-old. “We can go on like this.” Four years ago, the Germans finished the continental title fights with a silver medal and were only marginally inferior to Russia in the final. Two years later, the end followed in the quarter-finals. The Germans would welcome another move: the semi-finals and medal games will be held in Poland.