Bologna, Italy, September 21, 2018 - Brazil won 3-0 (25-21, 25-22, 25-15) over Australia in the first match in Pool F, but it wasn’t an easy win for the Olympic champions as the players of Mark Lebedew were breathing down the opponents’ necks in the first two sets to please the spectators in PalaDozza in Bologna with a close game.
Renan Dal Zotto, head coach of Brazil: “We are happy because of the result. It was very important. However, we can and we must play a little bit better, mainly in block and defence. We made the difference in the important moments and we kept calm to play the right way with the right mentality. It is important that we have players who take responsibility in the right moments – Wallace is one of the best players in his role in the world, Felipe gives us his great experience and Douglas, despite the fact of being younger, is not scared.”
Bruno Mossa Rezende, captain of Brazil: “It is no surprise that Australia played so well – they already have shown in the first round that they can be a tough opponent for the big teams. We knew that it was not going to be easy against them and we were aware that we had to perform extremely well. They were chasing us in the first two sets, we did not play so well in defence and this was our main problem. In the third set, we really showed them our good play in this component, and we could counterattack well. That was the key for this first victory.”
Mark Lebedew, head coach of Australia: “I don’t think that we played very well. We played at the same level that we played in the previous week in Bari. For this reason, it was disappointing – that we kept the same level. We still cannot find the proper way to play against the top teams. We made a lot of mistakes. We had a great chance to win one or two sets – and we have to learn from this experience if we want to play at this level. We will try to be better in the next matches as the final standing is important to us and to our programme. Every point and every match matter.”
Lincoln Williams, player of Australia: “We had our chances in the first two sets to win. In the third one we let off a little bit and being a great team, they just kept on playing their way. They were quite calmer than us and we gave them a way too many points. For the future, if we want to win, we have to stay calm, because we see that we have many opportunities in games against these elite opponents. We need to start to take our opportunities.”