Poland topped Pool D of the 2018 Men’s Volleyball World Championship after claiming a 3-1 (25-20, 26-28, 25-16, 25-15) victory against Finland in front of more than 5500 Polish and Finnish fans cheering together in The Palace of Culture and Sport.
Vital Heynen, head coach of Poland: "Today I am not satisfied at all because we lost a set but the plan was to push the opponent and get a 3-0 victory. I think the Finns were fighting really hard in the second set and they deserved to win it. Despite all I said It is good to be on the top of the pool with 9 points so now we can focuse on the last two difficult matches. We have a rest day tomorrow which is good and then we face Iran. It will be a tough game for sure."
Michal Kubiak, captain of Poland: "We did our job! We were supposed to win tree times at the begining of the tournament and we achieved our goal. We have two more tough matches. We are looking forward to play against Iran. This is the game we are thinking about now. Just after that we will start to prepare for our last opponent Bulgaria."
Tuomas Sammelvuo, head coach of Finland: “We have full programme playing four games in five days so it is important to keep our players in good condition and to save their energy when it is possible. I tried different variations today. We have fourteen players on the bench and each of them deserves to play and try to help the team. I would like to say that the crowd today was amazing and all the Finnish and Polish fans made a great volleyball party!”
Mikko Esko, player of Finland: “First of all I would like to thank all Finnish fans for their support tonight. They were incredible! I think Poland is much more experienced than us and they proved it in the game. This match was important and very beneficial for our young players. We do not have to forget that some of them participate in such a big tournament for the first time. That is why I think these kind of matches help us a lot.”