Team Austria have very high expectations for the upcoming CEV EuroVolley 2021 Women qualifiers. They are due to play later this week in Larissa against Spain, Norway and hosts Greece before a second round robin tournament follows a week later at the Raiffeisen Sportpark in Graz. The pool winners and runners-up will secure their participation in the Final Round co-hosted by Serbia, Bulgaria, Croatia and Romania later this summer. After the EuroVolley qualifiers, Austria will be among the teams featuring in the 2021 edition of the CEV European Silver League.
Jan De Brandt and Sophie Wallner strike a pose before the EuroVolley qualifiers
“We are confident about qualifying and we definitely want to go to the European Championship. Of course, it is a shame that no spectators can be present at the home tournament in the Raiffeisen Sportpark. We all still remember how great the atmosphere was at the last sold-out qualifying matches. However, we have to ignore that and only focus on the big goal. We have been working for this for a long time.” said Sophie Wallner, Team Austria’s Captain.
“We have had a very special year because of the pandemic. I took over as coach last May, we started our preparations for the EuroVolley qualifiers initially scheduled for August 2020 but a first postponement to January followed. The qualifiers could not take place in January either,” says head coach Jan De Brandt. “It is better to start now than in the winter, when many teams had to take training breaks again and again due to the virus. The players would probably not have been physically ready to play a good tournament. After the club season is over, things are different, and the players are in a good rhythm. The situation is of course still difficult due to the pandemic. Unfortunately, there is always a certain risk of a positive test – regardless of all the security measures we have taken.”
Representatives of Team Austria and the Austrian Volleyball Federation at a media meeting held in Vienna
“It is also a shame that there will be no spectators in the hall at our home tournament in Graz next week. Of course, we would have liked to take the last step to the European Championship finals in front of the home crowd and celebrate with the fans. However, that does not change anything about our goal! It will be important to start the EuroVolley qualifiers with a good performance against Spain. I see the Greeks as favourites, on paper the weakest opponent is Norway. Therefore, everything could depend on the duels with Spain. The test matches went well, we played 2-2 and 3-2 against Slovenia and completed nine sets against our next EuroVolley opponents Norway at the weekend in Maribor, eight of which ended in our favour,” he continues.
