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CEV EuroVolley 2021 started today in Ostrava. The Czech team played against Slovenia – the same opponent as 20 years ago when Ostrava hosted European championship as well. After a very equal first set which was won by the Czech team, the Slovenian players were unable to do something with it even in the second part of the game. They focused and after some fantastic points won the third set but that was all from them. Czech Republic, thanks to the amazing fans won 3:1 (26:24, 25:18, 14:25, 25:19) and gained three extremely important points.

The beginning of the match was quite even and both teams tried to create a small lead. After many wonderful rallies Adam Zajicek showed up and his two aces forced the Slovenian coach Alberto Giuliani to take a time-out (18:16). It helped because his team equalised and all the fans here in Ostrava were witnessing great volleyball. The Czech team created a set point which they won after a missed spike and won the first set (26:24).

Even in the second set home team started aggressively and took an early lead (6:2). The Slovenian players quickly recuperated and after a while the score was even (7:7). The Czech team fought hard and thanks to the ace of Jan Galabov took the lead again (12:9). Pushed by their fans, they won the second set with a relatively significant difference (25:18).

The third part of the game started exactly as the first one. Both teams played great volleyball and it was balanced. However Slovenia demonstrated why they finished second last CEV EuroVolley in 2019. They dominated and with no further issues won by a massive difference (14:25).

In the beginning of the fourth and final set it looked totally different. Czech representatives created an early lead (6:2) by some great points of Galabov, Hadrava and Sedlacek. The Slovenian team tried their best to stop the home team but they just corrected the score (22:18). During a standing ovation, the Czechs took their first win of the tournament with the same score as 20 years ago – 3:1.

Jiri Novak, Czech head coach: “The players gave a great performance and I have to congratulate them. We have a small outage in the third set however we played on amazing level with fantastic support from our fans. Now we must calm down and prepare for another game. Today’s win is very important and I am glad that we have tangled our group a little bit.”

Alen Pajenk, middle blocker: “The ending of the fourth set was like a summary of the whole game. We tried to play, we attacked more than our opponent but some unnecessary mistakes cost us a lot. Czech players were observant and concentrated. This is the thing we must improve until next match. It was not our usual performance, we can definitely play better. Our opponent had a strong serve, it was risky but quite worthy for them. We could not make our way through their quality blocks.“