Poland play party poopers in Germany to reach U21 World Champs

Lausanne, Switzerland, May 21, 2017 – Poland beat Germany 3-0 (25-23, 25-23, 26-24) in the CEV World Championship Qualifiers in Berlin on Sunday to claim the second of two qualifying spots that were available for the FIVB Volleyball Men’s U21 World Championship.

The U21 World Championship will take place in the Czech Republic from June 23-July 2 and on Saturday Ukraine claimed the first of the two available places with a win over host nation Serbia in Pozarevac. 

Poland and Ukraine will now join the Czech Republic, who qualify as World Championship hosts, and Italy and defending champions Russia who qualified through the FIVB Rankings. 

 

Over 400 fans packed into the SportFORUM in Berlin, but the majority were left disappointed as the home team missed the chance to fight back when they let four set points slip in the third set. 

Then when Poland had the chance to win the match, they needed no second chance. Poland’s rising stars that include captain Norbert Huber, Bartosz Kwolek and Tomasz Fornal will now have the chance to add U21 glory to the U19 World Championship they won in 2015. 

“It was important to play flawlessly towards the end of the sets,” Poland coach Sebastian Pawlik said. “Germany played their best game and surprised everyone. They improved their performance and did so in an impressive way. Even though we made many mistakes, we are of course happy with our victory.” 

“It was an amazing match and it does not happen very often that you get the opportunity to witness such a game,” Germany coach Johan Verstappen said. 

“I have to congratulate the team for fighting so hard, even though we were not able to score the crucial points towards the end of each set. Nevertheless, it was an amazing performance from my team and I am proud of the way these players have developed over the last two years.”