Czech Republic and Slovakia ended up too short for the Golden EuroLeague Final Four

With the teams participating in the Final Four of the Golden #EuroLeagueM already confirmed, the battles on the field this Sunday bring the opportunity to enjoy the last day of pool play in the 2021 edition of the competition.

Even before the last matches, already qualified are Belgium, Estonia, Ukraine and Turkey. The final tournament will take place on June 19-20 in Kortrijk (BEL).

Pool A
Final standings:
1. Estonia – 6 wins, 17 pts.
2. Belgium – 4 wins, 13 pts.
3. Spain – 2 wins, 6 pts.
4. Latvia – 0 wins, 0 pts.

Pool B
Final standings:
1. Ukraine – 4 wins, 12 pts.
2. Romania – 1 win, 4 pts.
3. Slovakia – 1 win, 2 pts.

Ukraine and Slovakia delivered an intense match in what was the last fixture in Pool B. After 114 minutes of play and having lost the first set, Ukraine emerged victorious at 3-1. Adding another 3 points to their records, the Ukrainian players finish in the group with a total of 4 wins and 12 points, and are already looking forward to the most important matches of the Golden #EuroLeagueM.

The players coached by Ugis Krastins made it difficult for Slovakia’s reception, scoring as many as 9 aces in the match becoming this element the key to their success, given that on the winning spikes both teams showed equal skills (46% efficiency by Ukraine compared by 44% by Slovakia). Dmytro Viietskyi became man of the match for Ukraine, scoring 25 points (3 aces). The Slovak players Michal Petras and Filip Gavenda, with 16 and 15 points each, were causing the main problems in defence for team Ukraine.

Pool C
Final standings:
1. Turkey – 6 wins, 18 pts.
2. Belarus – 3 wins, 7 pts.
3. Czech Republic – 2 wins, 7 pts.
4. Portugal – 1 win, 4 pts.

The defending champions from Turkey finished in an excellent way their League Round campaign and will enter the Final Four battles in good spirits. On Sunday, they emerged victorious after a 3-1 victory over the Czech Republic.

Turkey could claim the victory thanks to the better performance on the serving line (seven aces in total which turned out to be the key to the success). Adis Lagumdzija who topped the charts once again (22 points) and Baturalp Burak Güngör with two aces each became the best players on this element.

“We are very happy. Now, the hardest part comes – playing for the trophy. We know that the other teams also have the same goal. Injuries are part of the game, but we never let our guard down. We have a good team and the younger players have already demonstrated what they are capable of. We want to win the Golden League and as long as we have six players on the court, we will always fight for victory.”
Burak Güngör
Captain of Turkey

Turkey started better in the match, taking an early lead, with Adis Lagumdzija contributing with 6 points. The players around head coach Nedim Özbey were better also in the second set, working successfully on the block and with 6 kill blocks made the difference. Things changed in the third set with Czechia entering the court much more motivated. They responded with 6 kill blocks of their own and made it 2-1. Both teams went head to head in the next set. With the result being 14-14, the Turkish middle blocker Ahmet Tümer suffered an ankle injury and had to be replaced by Mustafa Cengiz. Burak Güngör made the difference with some good performance on the serve and team Turkey found their rhythm to close the match at 3-1.

“We couldn’t maintain focus. At the beginning, we weren’t effective in the reception and in the second set, the block-defence performance gave Turkey a clear advantage. We made some changes and improved our game but then we made some errors in attack and on serve. Congratulations to Turkey who were the best team throughout the competition having managed to maintain the quality of their game.”
Martin Kop
Assistant coach, Czech Republic