Andrea Giani, the coach of the France team, returned to his team’s defeat during the match for 3rd place against Slovenia (2/3) this Saturday at the Euro: “After a really very bad second set , we got back together, the team woke up, it was motivated to win this match. In the 3rd and 4th sets, what made the difference was that we found our efficiency in attack, which was not the case in the first two sets. Without attack, you can’t win in volleyball.”
The Transalpine then looked to the future, in particular the Olympic Games in Paris next summer. “There is a lot of work in the coming months, because we are close to the high level but we are not at the high international level. The match against Italy (in the semi-finals, 3-0 defeat, Editor’s note) showed us this. My assessment of this Euro is that we achieved the objective we set for ourselves, namely to play the semi-finals, but this tournament also showed us what we still had to do from here in Paris and especially how we should do it.”
For his part, Benjamin Toniutti, the captain of the France team, made this observation: “We didn’t start this match as we should, we were a little wait-and-see. Against a team like Slovenia who play with their guts, this cannot happen. We had a great reaction in the 3rd and 4th sets, but that was not enough. In the tie-break, we have the attacks to make the difference but we don’t seize these opportunities. They did it, they took more risks in services. It’s hard, we’re very disappointed, we all wanted to bring home a medal. But individually we must know what has sinned and we must take stock of the situation. In this tournament, we played well, but too much in sequences and in very high level volleyball, it’s hard to compete.
An opinion shared by Jenia Grebennikov, the libero of the France team: “It’s a shame, because we reacted well in the 3rd and 4th sets, I said to myself in the tie-break we will succeed in catching them , but they were more aggressive with their serves. They put us in a lot of difficulty, we didn’t carry out our attacks and in a tie-break, you pay cash. It’s a shame, because we worked hard all summer and to leave with nothing at all, it hurts. But it gives us a good basis to work on.”
