Gdansk, Poland, August 9, 2019 - Slovenia had their big moments in the match against France, but it was Les Bleues who got the final 3-0 (26-24, 25-20, 25-23) win on the first day of Pool D FIVB Volleyball Olympic Qualifying Tournament.
Tine Urnaut (Slovenia captain): "I'm really upset, we had our chances in the first set and in the third part we were leading for the most of the time. We played good in all elements, but we made some mistakes in organization of the game. We know how to play after making some errors, but here we delivered many free balls to our opponent and they were punishing us soon after, scoring points. We played very well in service, in attack - we were on similar level, in all elements there was no big difference, but organisation of the game was the key.”
Alberto Giuliani (Slovenia head coach): "A very close match - the main numbers in stats are really similar. Slovenian block was better, but the Frenchmen were better in long rallies. They controlled the ball better and this way the setter had easier job. This is the difference. In the third set individual performances in serve were crucial. Le Roux closed the game this way. The result is three-zero, but we deserved more. Now our situation in this pool is not good. However, we have three matches here, so we have to forget about this game."
Benjamin Toniutti (France capatin): "Before the match we didn't expect that playing against Slovenia is going to be easy. This is a strong team and they showed that nobody should ignore them. In our play we had some breaks, but we managed to overcome them and won the whole match 3-0."
Laurent Tillie (France head coach): "It was a tough game, because Slovenia are a very good team. We have seen that during all three sets in tactical elements, because they had good spike, good block, good service, so it was really difficult. I'm really happy, because we were very focused, even if we were behind we stayed concentrated and calm and this is a very important experience. Now we have to relax and prepare for next game."