Varna, Bulgaria, September 17, 2018 - Cuba beat 3-1 (25-15, 22-25, 25-21, 25-17) Puerto Rico in the Caribean clash of Pool D at the 2018 FIVB Volleyball Men’s World Championship. Thus the Central Americans will finish fifth in the standings while Puerto Rico will remain on the last place.
Niclas Coffigny, head coach of Cuba: „This was the best possible end of the tournament for us despite all the losses in the previous games. Great win against a very tough opponent! I am satisfied not only with the victory today but with our performance during the whole championship. We lost some games but we became stronger gaining a priceless experience.”
Livan Rodriguez, captain of Cuba: „We finally won and of course I am happy about that. Puerto Rico is a strong team and they gave us a lot of troubles especially in the second set. I believe that we will get stronger and we will perform better in the future. In general this was a great tournament organised on a top level.”
Oswald Antonetti, head coach of Puerto Rico: „Cuba was very strong. I think we missed our chance at the beginning of the first set. We tried to push them and play more intensively in the second one and we even won it. Unfortunately we did not manage to keep playing on the same high level, Cuba took their chances and get the victory.”
Eddie Rivera, player of Puerto Rico: „It was a great experience. We need to play more at this high level in order to improve in the future. We usually do not play againts such strong teams and now we are definitely more experienced than at the beginning of the tournament.”