FIVB Volleyball Men’s World Championship 2022 co-hosts Slovenia grabbed the first quarterfinal berth after defeating Germany for the second time this week in the opening Round of 16 match in Ljubljana on Saturday. Inspired by the incredible atmosphere at Arena Stozice, the home side celebrated a 3-1 (25-18, 25-19, 21-35, 25-22) victory and a historic first qualification among the world’s best eight teams right on their captain Tine Urnaut’s 34th birthday.
Men's World Championship 2022
Slovenia achieve historic success on Urnaut’s 34th birthday
Captain Urnaut leads his team to the World Championship quarterfinals
Published 06:05, 03 Sept 2022
The second quarterfinalist will emerge later on Saturday as Italy take on Cuba at Arena Stozice at 21:15 local time (19:15 GMT).
· Watch all FIVB Volleyball Men's World Championship 2022 matches live on Volleyball TV.
No wonder there’s LOVE 💙 in sLOVEnia 🇸🇮!
— Volleyball World (@volleyballworld) September 3, 2022
Crowd here in Ljubljana getting ready for the 🇸🇮 🆚 🇩🇪 Round Of 16 match of the World Champs.
📺 Watch the match LIVE ON VBTV.
⚡️ #Electrifying2022 #Volleyball #MWCH2022 #ifeelsLOVEnia @SloVolley pic.twitter.com/4TY4G7Tj65
Slovenia’s outside hitter Tine Urnaut scored some key points on the way to success against Germany. He opened the second set with an ace, in addition to 11 putaways in attack he made during the match at a success rate of 55%, including that clever back-row tip to draw the score level at 11-11 in the third set after Germany had broken away with a five-point lead.
“It’s amazing! The fans here are fantastic, but with every match, the more we play, the more fantastic they become,” captain Urnaut said after the match. “I am very happy that we qualified for the next round after this very difficult match. It’s a perfect birthday with the win in front of our fans. There is nothing more I could wish for today!”
Fellow outside Klemen Cebulj produced the match high of 19 points. The first of his two kill blocks gave Slovenia an 11-9 lead in the first set, right after opposite Toncek Stern had put the team in front for the first time in the match with another block for 10-9. Cebulj hammered three aces, all in set two. With two in a row, he extended Slovenia’s lead to 17-12. Then he aced again to bring up set point at 24-19. He also contributed 14 points in offence.
Stern added another 16 points towards the victory. He scored directly from the serving line for 13-10 in the first set and for 14-11 in the third. He chipped in with three kill blocks and 11 successful swings, including the second set winner.
Germany put up a great fight and went out fighting. Opposite Linus Weber led their scorers with 17 points to his name. His tally included an ace that brought Germany back to within one at 23-22 in the fourth set. Outside hitter Moritz Karlitzek also delivered a serving point for 9-4 in the third set towards his match total of 14 points. Middle blocker Tobias Krick was another key player for Germany. Spiking at a 67% success rate, he tallied a total of 13 points, including as many as five stuff blocks.
What really brought Germany down were the many unforced errors. They committed as many as 36 of those against only 26 for the Slovenians in the game. Even the match winner for the home team came from a German mistake in attack.
