Sofia, Bulgaria, June 3, 2018 – Serbia won their third-straight tiebreak match in Sofia at the Volleyball Nations League on Sunday.
Serbia coach Nikola Grbic: “On paper we should have won by 3-0 or 3-1. We tried to give some rest to our key players who played in the last two days and played 10 straight sets. As I was saying before, this is always difficult because some of the guys who didn’t play, they do not have rhythm, they do not even have practice. The important thing in this match is the victory. We have to understand that in tournaments like this, we just have to accept the situation and do our best, and we play our best with the players we have.”
Serbia captain Marko Ivovic: “We started well. Our coach tried to field in some players he used in the last two match. We made a good start and in the third set we changed our service. I am sure that we are the better team and I have faith in my team-mates.”
Australia coach Mark Lebedew: “I’m happy we came back from 0-2 in the match, but I think we should have won the first set as well. In the first set we were too relaxed. We lost but we showed power against Serbia. I’m very happy with my players who came in the third set. They put a lot of energy in our team and changed the game. We made big strides as a team here in Sofia. In some way we have to be satisfied with the four points.”
Australia player Max Staples: “We are satisfied with only one result in Sofia – the match against Bulgaria. In that match we played on a high level. We won in three sets and that was a great result for us. Against Serbia, we played good in the third and fourth sets but it wasn’t enough.
“We played a lot of matches in the last two weeks, but we still have more in the next three. The fatigue is not the reason we didn’t manage to win in five sets against Serbia, because all the guys are in good shape.”