Toyama, Japan, September 22, 2019 – Russia defeated Serbia 3-1 (25-16, 20-25, 25-23, 25-16) on the sixth day of the FIVB Women’s World Cup at Toyama City Gymnasium on Sunday.
Russia coach Sergio Busato: "Serbia are champions of the world and champions of Europe because they know very well how to play volleyball, and they showed this today. We tried to make one tactic and during the match had to change this tactic and for us this was great stress in the second and third sets because Serbia knew what we were doing and countered it. This shows why Serbia are the world champions and European champions, because they know volleyball. We tried to stop the top players on the Serbian team and with serving we sometimes tried zonal and sometimes targeted players, but Serbia knew what we were doing and changed tactics. So, we had to change tactics during the match and this was very big stress for us."
Russia captain Evgeniya Startseva: "We prepared well for today’s game because Serbia is a very strong team. In the beginning, it was good but in the middle of the match, we declined a bit. In the third and fourth sets, we came back and started to play our game. I’m proud of my team and happy with the result."
Serbia coach Aleksandar Vladisavljev: "Today, we didn’t play very well, so we deserved to lose. We didn’t have the level of energy as we had in the first five matches of this World Cup, especially in the first and fourth set, and our defence was at a low level. The key was the third set when we had the lead and Russia played very well and managed to come back and win this match. Russian middle blocker Koroleva had a very high percentage of efficiency today and that is why they were better today."
Serbia captain Ana Bjelica: "First, congratulations to the Russian team; they played really well and had strong attacks and blocks. While we were able to counter that and while we still had energy, we did a great job. In the third set, I think we played good with some small mistakes and that cost us this set. After that, we lost our way and allowed Russia to play their volleyball. We didn’t really recover from our five tough games in the first round, but it’s okay and we should be able to come back against Cameroon and recover our energy."
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