Zagreb, Croatia. As of Sunday, the members of the men’s national team of Croatia have reconvened in Zadar, where they will be preparing for the two most important events this year, the EuroVolley 2021 qualifiers and the European Silver League.
Croatia are aiming to qualify for EuroVolley for a fourth time in their history
Croatia will be hosting the Netherlands and Sweden for the first qualifier from May 7 to 9, 2021 in Zadar. The second tournament will be taking place in Apeldoorn (NED) a week later. The winners of the pool will secure participation in CEV EuroVolley 2021 – a feat that even the runners-up could achieve if they end among the top five second-placed teams across all pools.
The Croatian national team has managed to qualify for the European Championship three times so far, and this generation, coached by Emanuele Zanini, would definitely like to feature among the top 24 teams in Europe. Unfortunately, coach Zanini will not be able to be with his team until this coming Thursday, because as the coach of Mladost Zagreb, he will play the last game of the Croatian national league finals on Wednesday, so his first assistant Tomislav Coškovic and the rest of the staff will lead the training until later this week.
“Three things are very important to me. First, to gather in Zadar in the strongest line-up, and that all players are healthy, without injuries and especially without problems with COVID-19. Secondly, to achieve at least the level of form we had in 2019 when we did great in the European League against the Netherlands, Spain and Estonia. Third, we want to do our best through these two tournaments and qualify for the European Championship, regardless of the strength of the rivals.”
Emanuele Zanini
Head coach of Croatia
The captain of the national team, experienced setter Tsimafei Zhukouski, echoes the same feelings: “I hope that the preparations and qualifying matches will take place and that there will be no problems because of COVID-19 and that we will all be healthy and ready. The season has only recently ended for all of us, so I believe that we will come ready for the preparations, in the strongest line-up. In the pool, the Swedes are a little unknown to us, but we will certainly scout them well and never underestimate them, but fight for every point, because in the end it can be crucial to qualify for EuroVolley. We know the Dutch much better, we have already met them, and we have had positive results. They are a much stronger team on paper and they are the favourites of the group if they appear in their strongest team, and I see no reason why that should not be the case, but we are going against them as bravely as possible. I believe we can go to the European Championship. That is what we all want, and the focus will be on just that.”
List of players for the #EuroVolleyM qualifiers:
Setters: Petar Visic, Bernard Bakonji, Tsimafei Zhukouski
Opposite hitters: Leo Andric, Ivan Raic
Outside spikers: Marko Sedlacek, Filip Šestan, Tino Hanžic, Ivan Zeljkovic, Marino Marelic
Middle blockers: Ivan Mihalj, Sandro Dukic, Kruno Nikacevic, Tomislav Mitrašinovic
Liberos: Sven Šarcevic, Hrvoje Pervan
News:
HOS – Croatian Volleyball Federation
CEV – European Volleyball
