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After their day 1 victory against Belgium, the defending European Champions – Serbia – led by the coach Slobodan Kovac, successfully played their second match against a strong Ukrianian side. The scoreline of 3-0, fails to tell the story of just how close things were in the first set, with the Serbian players really having to be at their best to achieve it.

The Serbs started the game building a three-points advantage (4-1), but the Ukrainian team tied the match quickly (10-10). Raising their game again, Ukraine pushed Serbia all over the court and dominated large parts of the set. Serbia managed to secure the set, largely thanks a combination of Uros Kovacevic and Aleksandar Atanasijevic, but the story of the set was very much about Ukraine – despite them losing it 25-27.

In the second part the players of Ugis Krastins’s team took the lead and secured a little advantage (5-2), but similarly as in the first set, the Serbians equaled the score at 12-12. For a large part of the set, the players from Eastern Europe were always one step and one point ahead (17-16). However, in the most decisive moment a spectacular series of serves from the opposite Atanasijevic made the difference and this led his team to success in the second set as well (26-24).

The last part turned into a show of Serbian power as they build a lead at 8:3, but although it seemed to be an easier and faster set (14-10), the Ukrainian players started to make up for the loss in the almost last possible moment tieing the game at 16 all. Finally, after a nervous middle, top scorer Atanasijevic (16 points), strongly supported by the runner-up Kovacevic (13 points) made their team celebrate once again.