Ukrainian volleyball players will play in the Final Four of the Golden Euroleague
Main coach Ukrainian men’s volleyball team Ugis Krastinsh talked about preparing the team for Final Four Golden Euroleague.
In the semi-finals of the tournament, Ukraine will play with the Czech Republic. The match will take place on Saturday, June 18. The beginning is at 18:00 Kyiv time.
“We had very little time to fully prepare for the Final Four. After all, we played our last match of the group stage on June 4th. They gave the guys a chance to rest a little, after which they set to work. It turns out that it took less than two weeks to prepare,” Krastins said.
“In general, everyone is healthy, but the condition of the players cannot be called ideal. Still, their thoughts are in their homeland, where the war against Russian aggressors continues. You understand that this negatively affects each of them. But, on the other hand, the guys understand how important sports victories at the international level are now for Ukraine. Therefore, they work hard and really want to win the Golden Euroleague.”
“Diagonal Vasily Tupchiy and setter Vladislav Didenko are currently training with us, who for various reasons did not play in previous fights. Both are already experienced players, so we really hope that they will strengthen our team.”
“As for our face-to-face meetings [с Чехией], then we played with them for a long time and the lineups of the teams have, of course, changed since then. It is clear that our coaching staff has collected some information about the upcoming opponent. A strong team that also sets itself ambitious plans. But we also have something to answer them. So we will only fight for victory.”
“We are well aware that, if not for the war, many Ukrainian volleyball fans would come to Croatia to support us. However, we think that we will still have support here. And we also know that Ukrainian fans will worry about us, sitting at the TV screens or monitors. We will do our best not to let them down.”
As part of the group stage of the Golden Euroleague, Ukraine won all six matches. Krastiņš’s team defeated Spain (3:1, 3:0), Croatia (3:1, 3:1) and Denmark (3:2, 3:2) twice each.
Source: Sportarena
