Serbia fully prepared to face the full force of Poland - on and off the court

The defending champions Serbia started their campaign in Pool A on the right foot, winning their first two encounters against Belgium and Ukraine, earning the maximum six points. On the horizon for them though is the clash of the titans in Pool A, as on Saturday they face the reigning world champions and hosts Poland. The rightfully have confidence though, as the Serbian side are undefeated at EuroVolley since 2017 and their bronze medal match at the very same Tauron Arena. This means that they have won 12 games in a row at Europe's prime competition and they have a chance to extend this winning streak if they beat Poland in an expected full house in Kraków.

Although Serbia earned two victories, Slobodan Kovac is not fully satisfied and sees a big room for improvements: "We had to enter the game more engaged. We tried to beat Ukraine playing technically, not by our own strengths. There were a lot of long rallies, the ball was going back and forth and it's not our type of game. We have only one player who plays like this - Uros Kovacevic and the rest have very good physical condition and we didn't use it. I think we still can play much better than what we showed."

Head coach of Serbia emphasized that this event is the main goal for his team. "EuroVolley means a lot to us. We didn't play the Olympic Games, so this European Championship is the most important event for us. We worked really hard and we did our best to achieve as good shape as possible."

In the opinion of Serbian opposite Aleksandar Atanasijevic, who on Saturday celebrates his 30th birthday, the fact that his team has more time for rest and preparations ahead of EuroVolley than the teams competing at Tokyo 2020 will rather not play a crucial role. "It doesn't change anything, it was already visible in the previous years. The teams who participated in the Olympics can be more relaxed, France and Russia achieved amazing results in Tokyo, so they don't have to prove anything to anyone. They can come relax and show that they are still one of the best teams in the world. For us it was important that we had time to prepare, we had almost two months to get ready. I am really happy that we are again at EuroVolley, especially that until now we were successful in Europe's competition. We are the European champions, two years have passed since our European gold, but it's hard to say now there are many games to play and we literally living from one game to another, what we did also the last time and we hope that also this time will bring a good result."

On Saturday, the two favourites of Pool A will lock horns in front of close to 15,000 fans, as all tickets for this game at Tauron Arena are already sold. "Tomorrow we are playing the most important game of this part of the tournament, because we are playing against Poland who is in my opinion a favourite to win this tournament - especially after the Olympic Games. We won the EuroVolley two years ago, but we didn't play the Olympic Games. It was the most important tournament in the last four years and we didn't compete there. We are one of the favourites in this tournament - in my opinion, among the first three of four teams, but we didn't play the Olympics. Poland were favourites to win the Olympic gold and they didn't win, they have great morale, they play at their home and Poland is the land of Volleyball, so in my opinion they are favourites to win this tournament. In 2016 at this arena, we won the World League, it is a lucky arena for us" - said middle blocker Marko Podrascanin.