Berlin, Germany, January 5, 2020 - German opposite György Grozer led the home team to a 3-0 (25-19, 25-22, 25-20) shutout of the Czech Republic, inspired by a home crowd of over four thousand on the stands of the Max-Schmeling-Halle on Sunday for the first day of the CEV Men's Tokyo Volleyball Qualification tournament.
Germany head coach Andrea Giani was pleased to begin with a positive result in front of an enthusiastic home crowd. "The first two sets weren't easy for us. Especially in the second set we had a lot of difficulties to play our game. Fortunately we had an outstanding service performance by Georg Grozer at the end. It was a typical first game at such a tournament. For me and my team it is a pleasure to play at home and the home crowd advantage helped today and will help us during this Olympic qualifiers."
Germany captain Lukas Kampa also underlined the serving prowess of his teammate Grozer. "We have not yet torn down the hall with our game. I am happy for Georg that he brought us back in the second set. The spectators are waiting for something like this. It was important that we came back from the setbacks. Overall, we have to do even better in defense and improve. Simply use the situations that are given to us."
Meanwhile, Czech Republic coach Michal Nekola said his team had to continue to build its consistency. "We are not satisfied with the result because 3-0 is too hard for us. Especially in the second set with the 22-18 lead. It was Grozer who broke our rhythm. We have to be brave in attack and serve. We just have to continue this performance in serve and attack. I hope in two days we will recover and we will be stronger."
Czech captain Jakub Janouch agreed. For him work continues to be key as his team look to improve in their next matches in Berlin. "We are sad because we lost 3-0. In some moments I was proud of my teammates, but I am angry because of the second set, cause we were leading most of the set and at the end we couldn´t manage to win it. Grozer probably is the best server in this tournament but still we had the chance and we didn´t take it. So this is the one thing what makes me feel angry. But on the other side I am proud of the guys because some of them played their first match in the men´s team today. So we just need to work on to keep the level and to solve some situations better in the next match."