After 12-year-break Netherlands powered by Abdel Aziz back in quarters
Story of the day
The Netherlands and Portugal delivered a spectacular five-set battle on Sunday evening in Gdańsk that eventually ended with victory for the Oranje. The team under guidance of Roberto Piazza came to Poland as the winner of Pool C (with one defeat against Russia) and now led by their powerful leader Nimir Abdel Aziz they secured a spot in EuroVolley quarterfinals.
Nimir Abdel Aziz"The victory is the most important. Honestly, I don't care how many points I made, because only the result is important. I don't think that it was a good match or a game on a good level for us, but we won and that's what counts."
captain of the Netherlands
To progress to quarterfinals is without a doubt a significant achievement for the Netherlands, as they achieve this phase of competition for the first time since 2009, when they finished 7th.
Nimir Abdel Aziz"This is my fifth EuroVolley and we never made it to quarterfinals. That's a great thing, but we haven't finished yet and we want more."
captain of Netherlands
On Tuesday, the Netherlands will face Serbia in quarterfinal, having at stake a spot in the final four of EuroVolley and they haven't been among top four teams of Europe's prime competition since 1997, when they claimed their only title. But to make it happen they have to eliminate all weak points that might be used by the defending champions.
"I think that the fact that we played the fifth set today was a result of our own errors, because we were a couple points ahead and we let them get back - not because they played amazing, but because we made our own mistakes. We have to play more with our heads and make less mistakes in the next game. But this was a game with a lot of stress and nerves and we won. Now we will watch it and analyse what we have to do and improve" - said Abdel Aziz.