Monday, September 13, 2021
Spicy EM quarter-finals
German volleyball players before a special duel
An extraordinary task awaits the German volleyball players: In the quarter-finals, Italy is not only facing a huge sporting challenge. The game will be special for the national coach, also for emotional reasons.
The German national volleyball coach Andrea Giani is looking forward to the EM quarter-final against his home country Italy, which is special for him. “I’m really looking forward to it,” said the 51-year-old from Naples before the game in the top eight on Tuesday (12 noon) in Ostrava, Czech Republic. “I know the players and the support team very well,” added Giani, who is Pallavolo Modena’s second job coach in Serie A.
The better the expert knows about the strength of the opponent. The three-time world and six-time European champion only gave one set in his EM group matches against the German opponents in the round of 16 and against the Czech Republic and clearly decided his own match in the round of the best 16 against Latvia 3-0. The players of the German Volleyball Association (DVV), second in the 2017 European Championship, made a lot of service errors in the 3-1 win against Bulgaria, especially in the second lost round.
“Whole team with heart”
“I think it was more a matter of the head,” says star player Georg Grozer. “The important thing is that we fought our way back and that the whole team was there with heart.” The diagonal attacker was the second best scorer in the duel with 17 points behind Moritz Karlitzek. The 25-year-old outside, who was preferred to captain Christian Fromm in the starting line-up, recorded a total of six aces and with his service played a major role in helping his team to catch up in the fourth set.
Giani would like his players, who go to the quarter-finals as underdogs, not to put too much pressure and worry against Italy, but to enjoy the game. “Then we can use it to take our performance to a new level,” he said.
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