The Croatian Volleyball Federation is slowly building a national team that could in the near future approach the successes of the 1990s. This is also why the leadership of the team has been entrusted to Italian coach Daniel Santarelli, who wants to take a step further at the Women’s Qualifying Tournament in Apeldoorn, the Netherlands.
They used the preparation time before the tournament for friendly matches with Bulgaria, who, along Azerbaijan, Turkey, Belgium, Germany, Poland and the Netherlands, also seeks its chance to qualify for the Tokyo Olympics. According to Santorelli, Turkey, the silver medalist from the last European Championship is the biggest favorite. However, of course, he does not hide his desire to qualify for the Olympics and lead Croatia to a success like the one twenty years ago, when they lost only in the quarterfinals of the Olympics in Sydney to Cuba.
A few preparation days were missed by the captain and in recent years the best Croatian player, Samantha Fabris, who won just before the end of last year the Russian Cup with her team from Kazan and joined the national team directly in Bulgaria. She is convinced that they can stand their own against every team in this tournament, which they also proved at the past European Championships, when they lost to the later finalist, Turkey in the eighth finals.
Croatia plays in Group B and its opponents are Germany, Belgium and Turkey. To the Netherlands they traveled with the following line-up: Samantha Fabris, Bernarda Brci?, Lea Deak, Lucia Mlinar, Matea Iki?, Katarina Pavici?, Ema Strunjak, Martina Šamadan, Beta Dumanci?, Božana Butigan, Rene Sain, Nikolina Božicevi? and Lara Vukasovi?. In Group A, Bulgaria, Azerbaijan, the Netherlands and Poland will compete for the first two places leading into the semifinals of the qualifying tournament. Only the best of the eight countries in this tournament will travel to Tokyo.
Photo Credit: Croatian Volleyball Federation
