Slovenia recovers and advances to the semi-finals for the first time in their history
After a slow start, Slovenia rallied to beat tournament favorites Ukraine in front of thousands of spectators in Ljubljana, Slovenia, on Wednesday, at the FIVB Volleyball Men’s World Championship 2022.
The Slovenians defeated the Ukrainians 3-1 (18-25, 26-24, 25-19, 25-23) in the quarterfinals despite the home team having a rough start due to the loud environment at the full Arena Storzice.
Slovenia VS Ukraine
On Saturday, in Katowice, Poland, the Slovenians will face the defending European champions, Italy, who knocked out the defending Olympic winners, France, earlier in the day. This is a repeat of the game that decided the European Championship last year.
Slovenia, just in their second World Cup, have already moved up from their 2018 debuting position of 12th place. Gheorge Cretu’s squad needs one more victory to claim the event’s first medal.
After the game, captain Tine Urnaut observed, “This is for certainly our best success as a team so far.” We’re humbled by the incredible support we’ve received from the local community after starting from the bottom. It’s all going to come down to the wire in the semifinals, so we’ll be fighting for every ball.
Ukraine, competing in their first World Championship, outperformed Slovenia in every statistical category. They won the match with 54 kills, nine blocks, and seven aces (seven to four). Their 33 miscues, compared to Slovenia’s 21, were the difference.
Klemen ebulj, an outside hitter for the Slovenian team, played a crucial role in their triumph. The 30-year-old veteran was the driving force behind the offense, scoring 23 points on 19 kills, 1 block, and 3 aces.
The team’s seasoned outside hitter added 11 points (all in kills) while the middle blockers, Jan Kozamernik and Alen Pajenk, both chipped in nine points.
Ukraine has been playing really well on the volleyball court, and it made for a challenging encounter, Urnaut said. But it was like we had three more players on the court because of the incredible support we received from the audience. We struggled to find any success in the first set, but after applying more pressure and playing with more discipline, we eventually prevailed.
Capt. and outside hitter for the Ukrainians, Oleh Plotnyskyi, scored 30 points to lead all players (21 kills, four blocks, five aces). To his opposite, Vasyl Tupchii also turned in a solid outing, scoring 12 points (ten kills, one block, one ace).
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