Portugal will open their World League campaign against the Netherlands
Lausanne, Switzerland, May 13, 2015 – Portugal will face the Netherlands at the Matosinhos Sports and Convention Centre in their opening Pool E matches of the 2015 FIVB World League on Saturday and Sunday.
With the games being shown on TV, expectations are high for the home side.
One of Portugal’s new players, 21-year-old Afonso Guerreiro, says he is looking forward to the new challenge:
"When I played with youth teams, I always wanted to make it to the top team, so when Hugo Silva gave me this great opportunity, I was really excited about it. I’ll be playing with the best and that gives me and my younger teammates a great opportunity to learn.
“The training is really positive and the team is really experienced, and technically and physically excellent. Everything’s really well organized and that will help us perform at our best, although it was tough at first.”
The young CV Oeiras attacker promises to continue working hard to make sure he’s ready when called upon.
"Being here is already a great opportunity, but we always want more and we can really only do that when we’re out there on the court,” he added. “I’m looking forward to facing teams like the Netherlands, Belgium and Finland as they have players who I usually only see on TV. Being able to play against them is a great opportunity to grow as a player.”
After this weekend, Portugal will play Finland away (June 5 and 6), Belgium away (June 12 and 13) and the Netherlands away (June 19 and 20). They will then host two series of games: against Belgium (June 27 and 28) and Finland (July 4 and 5).