Ukraine reaches the quarterfinals of the European Volleyball Championship with a thumping victory

The Ukrainian men's national team reached the quarterfinals of the European Championship, which is held from August 28 to September 16 in Italy, Bulgaria, Northern Macedonia and Israel. Ugis Krastins' wards defeated Portugal 3:0 (25:20, 25:19, 25:22) at the Palace of Sports in Varna.

The beginning of the match was an even contest, with both teams going point for point. Leading 8:7, our compatriots picked up the pace and began to play more aggressively in defense and made a 9:2 breakthrough, the key factor in the set. The Portuguese were able to narrow the gap to 2 points, but it did not affect the result.

Portugal tried to take revenge in the second game, leading 3:1. "Our team did not let their opponents break away, imposing a point-to-point game. This rhythm lasted until Kovalev's serve allowed Ukraine to go from 'exchange of points' to the breakaway mode of 13:14".

The Portuguese's game was visibly disintegrating. João José's wards made mistakes on the serve and hit into the net, forcing their coach to take timeouts to save the situation.

The Ukrainian national team started the third set extravagantly, scoring 3 unanswered points, but the Portuguese volleyball players were not going to give up, leveling the score. As soon as Ukraine had a lead of more than two points, the Portuguese team coach took a minute break right away,

It didn't work and the game went on with total domination of our volleyball players. Our team relaxed ony in the end and let the opponent have 2 points, but they did not give up the victory.

Ukrainians will play against Slovenia in the quarterfinals on September 11.

As reported by OBOZREVATEL, Ukraine defeated Spain in the final round of the group stage with a score of 3:0 and guaranteed a place in the playoffs.

Ukraine had a bad start at the volleyball Euro-2023, losing the first three meetings. They got their first victory only in the match against Finland Krastiņs's wards, but it did not excite the players. Ukraine's captain Oleh Plotnytsky said that "they play like sh*t".

It should be noted that Ukraine is playing in the Euro playoffs for the third time in its history. Our compatriots finished in the quarterfinals (2019) and in the 1/8 finals (2021) at the two previous continental championships.

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