Berlin, Germany, January 7, 2020 - In an intense match, hosts Germany were defeated by the European vice-champions Slovenia in five sets 3-2 (32-34, 25-20, 19-25, 25-21, 15-12). Germany and Slovenia qualify for the semifinals in Berlin.
It was a long match with ups and downs for the German team, but coach Andrea Giani was pleased with his players. "Despite the loss I am still satisfied. We made some changes on the court but the guys played with high energy. They were on an equal level with the vice-European champions Slovenia but made a few more mistakes. However, it is good to see that we have a wide squad which is very important in a tournament like the Olympic qualifications. It was also good that we had the chance to rest some of our players for the semis. Georg is also fine and we remain positive that he can play on Thursday."
For Germany captain Lukas Kampa the key point to remember is that his team progress to the semifinals. "Of course it was our goal to win but it was still a good performance from us. It was really hard work to reach the semis here and that´s the most important fact. So it is not important to finish the pool in the first place because of the do-or -die games in front of us. If you want to get the ticket you have to beat all the teams and we made just the first step. We will use Wednesday to have a little rest to be in a good shape on Thursday."
Slovenia coach Alberto Giuliani was pleased with the result but not as satified with the manner of achieving it. "About this match I save the results, because it’s important to qualify for the semifinals, but I don’t like the play. We played very bad. We played without concentration. We played without attitude. I don’t like this. I think it’s difficult to play all the matches in the same level, because we have got to stay together for a long time. I think this is the problem."
Slovenia captain Tine Urnaut was also critical of his team's effort, but pleased with the result. “It was important to win today, so we qualified for the semifinals. The level of our game was not the highest, but in such a long tournament it’s important that even if you don’t play good, you can win and today after losing 2-1 we stepped up a little bit our serving game and that permitted us to win the game."