08-SEPTEMBER-2012
PORTUGAL SHOWED GREAT DETERMINATION
 

 

The home heroes of Portugal needed five sets to eventually edge Great Britain (26-24, 22-25, 20-25, 25-18, and 15-10) in the opening match of the 2nd round qualifier – Pool A for the 2013 men’s European Championship.

Portugal showed great determination to come back from 1:2 in sets and compensated for the poor performance displayed in set 2 and 3 by cruising to the final 3:2 win.

Great Britain set the pace of the game almost all the way through in the first set but Portugal ended up by seizing it with the score of 26-24; Team GB reacted by taking the next two and playing extremely well in attack. After that Portugal re-adjusted their block and reacted in the best way, stepping up also in defense to eventually bring it home at the tie-break. Alex Ferreira paced Portugal with 20 points while Joel Miller top scored for Team GB with 14.

“It was our first win in official matches this year and it was a tough game” said Portugal mentor Flavio Gulinelli. “Everything got more complicated after the second and third sets, but we made some changes and it worked just fine until the end of the game”.
 “It was a difficult game, luckily we claimed the first set but honestly I do not know what happened afterwards. I think we showed our real value in the remainder of the game” stated captain Joao Jose.

“I have to congratulate my players for their performance especially since Portugal is a strong team as they recently demonstrated in the World League matches against the Netherlands” said GB coach Joel Banks.
“I am pleased with our performance in the first three sets but then we lacked stamina. It is nevertheless good that we could take one point from this match. I think if we can display that quality in all matches, we may go for the second place in the group” singled out captain Ben Pipes.