Bari, Italy, September 14, 2018 – In the second match of the third competition day in Bari, Russia routed Tunisia 3-0, as Maxim Mikhaylov and his teammates confirmed their status of top favourites in Pool C.
Maxim Mikhaylov, opposite of Russia: “We managed to stun Tunisia with a straight three-set win but we still have to face strong teams like the United States, who will be our opponents tomorrow. This match allowed our team to claim some more points in the race for the top spot in the pool while playing on a court we are still not that familiar with as we only had one training session here. We won the Volleyball Nations League earlier this season, but it was a challenging and hard tournament. Now we need to reset while being focussed on what is to come next in this championship.”
Antonio Giacobbe, head coach of Tunisia: “It is very simple to analyse today’s match. Russia have the right assets, as they showed in the second set, when their great block and defence skills combined with our lack of strength in attack made the difference. Their service was less strong than usual and we made some mistakes in attack. In the following set, we showed a better individual and team performance, but we must not forget whom we dealt with. Despite that, the performance of our young player Ali Bongui proved that Tunisian volleyball has a bright future ahead.”