SRB v NED

Serbia go for 5th place after win over the Dutch

Budapest, Hungary, 19 July 2019 – Serbia held off the Netherlands for a 3-1 (25-16, 25-18, 24-26, 25-19) win, here on Friday morning, that puts the Balkan side in position to fight for 5th place in the 2019 Sitting Volleyball Men’s European Championships.

Dragisa Zoric scored a match high of 17 points for Serbia, though the Netherlands’ Geert van den Heuvel was close on his heels with 16. The Serbs outplayed the Dutch in all scoring skills, though lagged just a little bit in receiving.

In the classification match for 5th place Serbia will meet the winner of the Latvia v Croatia match. The Netherlands will play the loser for 7th place.

LAT v CRO

Croatia go for 5th place after shutting out Latvia

Budapest, Hungary, 19 July 2019 – Croatia remain on track for a fifth-place finish at the 2019 Sitting Volleyball Men’s European Championships after their 3-0 (25-17, 25-20, 25-19) win over Latvia.

Edvin Zdionica and captain Ivan Cosic were joint top scorers of the game on 17 points each, as Croatia dominated the game across the board, including 12 aces (half of those from Zdionica) and 5 blocks.

Croatia will now challenge Serbia for 5th place on Saturday, while Latvia will meet the Netherlands for 7th place.

POL v HUN

Poland shut out the hosts to grab 11th place

Budapest, Hungary, 19 July 2019 – Poland, once just on the brink of advancing to the quarterfinals, have ranked 11th overall in the 2019 Sitting Volleyball Men’s European Championships after wrapping up their campaign with a 3-0 (25-15, 25-19, 25-22) win over hosts Hungary.

Michal Machowski scored 13 points and Michal Wypych added another 10 for Poland, but the match high came from Robert Kertesz who bagged 18 for Hungary.

The Poles proved more successful on the net with 8 blocks to 3 and a 50% attacking efficiency (27/54) to 31% (22/72).

The result leaves Hungary 12th in the final ranking of the 2019 European Championships.

LTU v TUR

Turkey seal 9th place and secure ticket to Division A for 2021

Budapest, Hungary, 19 July 2019 – Turkey secured their ticket to Division A of the 2021 European Championships after their win here on Friday evening 3-1 (25-15, 22-25, 25-21, 25-23) that sealed 9th place in the standings of the 2019 Sitting Volleyball Men’s European Championships.

Mehmet Yilmaz pulled off an amazing performance and scored 31 points – 28 of those from kills off his 62 swings (45%) – to lead Turkey to the critical win. Turkey’s performance was just slightly better than Lithuania’s across all skills, with 7 to 5 aces, 12 to 11 stuffs and 38% to 36% attacking efficiency. Lithuania ranked 10th overall in Budapest.

BIH v UKR

Bosnia & Herzegovina go for 10th European title after making 2019

#EuroSittingVolley final Budapest, Hungary, 19 July 2019 – Bosnia & Herzegovina vie for their tenth continental title here on Saturday after making the men’s final of the 2019 Sitting Volleyball European Championships with a 3-0 (25-20, 25-12, 25-19) sweep of Ukraine in semifinal action here Friday evening.

Bosnia & Herzegovina will play in a European Championship final again for the first time since 2015, after missing out in 2017 when they claimed the bronze medal. That came after back-to-back titles for the Balkan side since 1999.

Mirzet Duran was the driving force behind Bosnia & Herzegovina’s with 15 points, as his side built up leads in all three sets and left Ukraine trying in vain to catch up. An impenetrable block mostly by Sabahudin Delalic and sub Edin Djino who registered three each from a team total of 12, was instrumental in Bosnia & Herzegovina’s win.

Denys Bytchenko’s match high of 16 points for Ukraine proved too little to make a difference, although the losers did register a more efficient reception.

Bosnia & Herzegovina will now meet Russia in Saturday’s final, a rematch of all four European Championship finals between 2007 and 2013. Ukraine, silver medallists last time around in 2017, will have to settle for the bronze medal match this year, where they meet Germany.

RUS v GER

Russia overpower Germany to make 2019 #EuroSittingVolley final and claim ticket to Tokyo 2020

Budapest, Hungary, 19 July 2019 – Russia are through to the men’s final of the 2019 Sitting Volleyball European Championships following a 3-0 (25-21, 25-18, 25-16) win over Germany that also saw them claim a ticket to the Tokyo 2020 Paralympic Games.

With Bosnia & Herzegovina, Russia’s opponent in Saturday’s final having already booked their own ticket to the Paralympics since last year on the basis of their ranking at the World Championships, Russia are now assured to join them in Japan regardless of the result in the European Championships final.

Germany kept up in the scoreline through to about midway into the first set, but the defending champions gradually built up a lead of up to five points.

It was a similar scenario in the second, as Germany simply couldn’t find a solution to Viktor Milenin. Russia built their lead, Germany pulled a few points back to close in to within five 22-17 forcing coach Aleksandr Ovsyannikov to call a timeout – but that was just the extent of Russia’s worries.

It was the same all over again in the third, with Russia once again breaking away half way through the set and Germany just unable to keep the pace set by Milenin and captain Aleksandr Savichev.

Indeed, the pair of them were Russia’s high scorers, with Milenin on 14 and Savichev just one below at 13. Germany’s Dominik Albrecht was joint top scorer of the game, on par with Milenin.

It was Russia’s attacking and receiving that made the difference in the game – all other skills more or less level.

Germany’s men followed the fate of their women’s team who had previously fallen to Italy in the semifinals. They now meet Ukraine in Saturday’s bronze medal match.