Liebherr European Championships
In the morning session at he third day of the play at the LEBHERR European Championships in Nantes England upset the rankings and overcame Belarus to reach the quarterfinal of the Men’s Team’s Event. In Women’s Teams Event Netherlands overcame Czech Republic 3-1 and Hungary beat Belarus 3-0.
Liam PITCHFORD was not in the line up for the match against Luxembourg but today he was at the top of the game on his both exits to the table. He gave good start to England with the victory over Pavel PLATONOV but most importantly he beat Vladimir SAMSONOV to launch England in quarterfinal (10-12 11-9 12-10 11-8). He repeated the success from the last year’s when he overcame SAMSONOV at the World Championships in Halmstad.
“It is always nice to beat the legend. It was really difficult. All the games were very close. I did not let him control the game. I was very fast in rallies attacked ” said PITCHFORD. “We were very well prepared. The third match of Samuel WALKER was very important. He had to win that one. Coming to the table at 2-1 for me was obviously much better position then it was for SAMOSNOV.”
Previously Vladi overcame Paul DRINKHALL.
Slovenia justified their rankings but not without drama. Darko JORGIC was the instrumental to team’s success against Croatia with two wins over Andrej GACINA and Tomislav PUCAR. He needed full five games to overcame GACINA by same margin Bojan TOKIC beat PUCAR. Deni KOZUL was also stretched to full five games against Frane KOJIC but he prevailed to give Croatia only point.
“It is so difficult to play when you know each other very well. We were very afraid of PUCAR and it proved right. Tactics against him worked. Now we have to face Germany like last time but little bit earlier then previously now in already in quarters. We will fight hard for sure ” said JORGIC.
Hungary showed solid performance which launched them in the Round of 8. In both matches against Belgium and Belarus they recorded straight matches victories. Today against Belarus Georgina POTA beat Katsiaryna BARAVOK in superb style Dora MADARASZ lost only one game to Daria TRIGOLOS whilst Szandra PERGHEL was the only to face real pressure against Nadezhda BOGDANOVA. She succeeded in full five games.
“I did not start well. It took me time to adjust my game ” explained PERGEL. “At the beginning I wasn’t focused. I didn’t give 100% but after the first two games I started to focus more on the game of my opponent. I started to feel better became more confident and knew how to react. Generally I am really happy with the performance of the team. I hope that we can continue like this in the following games.”
POTA was satisfied with the overall performance of the team:” We came here in good shape. This is big Championships and top teams are here but according to rankings we had to win both matches. The real test is in front of us we will face Austria or Ukraine and that is much bigger challenge.”
Netherlands also recorded two wins on their way to the quarterfinal. In both encounters against Serbia and Czech Republic they succeeded in four matches. Against Czech Republic LI Jie overcame Dana CECHOVA and Hana MATELOVA Britt EERLAND also overcame MATELOVA Kim VERMAAS lost to Karin ADAMKOVA.
“Yesterday it was a bit harder because it is always like this in the opening games; you are always nervous in your first match. Today we were more calm and more confident. And we are already played in the hall. So of course it was a hard match but we played a bit better than yesterday. It was very important to keep calming my nerves. I was focusing to keep attacking because when she’s under pressure MATELOVA wants to defense more. We keep fighting ; it doesn’t matter if we lose as long as we keep fighting ” said EERLAND.
