Thessaloniki, Greece, June 19, 2015 - China remain unbeaten in Pool G of the FIVB World League after their 3-2 (20-25, 23-25, 25-19, 25-20, 15-13) victory in a thriller against Slovakia.
China coach Xie Guochen: The Slovakian team played much better than in Tepic. We prepared very well and we had the advantage in the first two sets but in the crucial points we didn’t played that well. I wanted to win the match in straight sets but as it happened I’m satisfied with the victory and the reaction of my players. We are still two matches away from our goal and we haven’t qualified yet.
China captain Jiao Shuai: It was a tough but also a great game while both sides played high level volleyball. In the beginning Slovakia played very aggressively and we were facing many difficulties, but the then players that came from the bench helped us to improve and stabilise our game. It is a very important victory but nothing has finished yet”.
Slovakia coach Flavio Gulinelli: It was a balanced match and I think it was better than the one that we played in Mexico. China came back with their powerful services, started from the third set, but the main reason for our loss was the problems we had in transition. Although we improved in the relation between block and defense, we still had many problems in attack.
Slovakia captain Michal Masny: We played a little better than in Mexico, there was some progress but as it proved that wasn’t enough for us to win the match. In the first two set we played really good in the end, we had our chances in the third one, but in the fourth set we couldn’t receive at all and we lost it easily. So the fifth set is like a lottery. Sometimes you win, sometimes you lose and we gave them the chance to win the match.