Gdansk, Poland, August 11, 2019 - At the end of the FIVB Volleyball Olympic Qualification in Gdansk, hosts Poland overwhelmed Slovenia 3-1 (21-25, 25-23, 25-23, 25-21) to get the ticket to the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games.
Alberto Giuliani (Slovenia head coach): "It was really a good game, I'm happy about the first two sets. We knew that our goal here was very difficult to reach, so it was not easy to open the match. We were really close at the beginning of the game. My guys were very motivated on the court and I'm proud of them. I think I saw very good volleyball. In the second set we made too many mistakes on serve, but I'm satisfied with performance of my team."
Tine Urnaut (Slovenia captain): "We played well in the first and second set. We had a great chance, but we made too many mistakes, especially in serve. It's a positive tournament considering the fact that we proved we can play high-level volleyball. Other teams had more hard games, they consistently play more high-level matches, we don't have experience with too many games like this."
Vital Heynen (Poland coach): "Slovenia's chances were really low, so they could play without pressure. They started with advantage of 2-3 points in the first set and for the whole part we were few points behind. In the second part we played better as we started equal, but it was a lot of fight during this set. This is volleyball, pressure plays a role. And we were on pressure as we wanted to qualify here. I feel very satisfied that we secured qualification to Tokyo 2020 using the first round."
Maciej Muzaj (Poland captain): "We knew that we cannot disregard Slovenia, because they can be a tough opponent. We didn't manage to win the first set, also the second was difficult but at the end of this part we managed to get the crucial points. We were focused and stayed in fighting spirit to win this game. They served well and we struggled with reception, also our block didn't work perfectly. The tournament is over, we don't have to analyse it now, because we reached our goal in 100% - we qualified for the Olympic Games."