Florence, Italy, September 18, 2018. Japan claimed a dramatic 3-2 victory in their matchup with Argentina in Florence, but this is not enough for the Asian team to continue their adventure in this year’s World Championship.
Facundo Conte, top scorer of Argentina with 33 points: “I am happy because we reached our goal even if we lost the match. Japan is very strong when it comes to their defence game and this was evident today. It will be very tough in Bulgaria, however we will try to achieve something more in this tournament.”
Julian Alvarez, Argentina assistant coach: “Our goal was to win two sets and we did it. We are sorry that we lost the match, but Japan never surrendered and deserved the victory.”
Philippe Blain, Japan assistant coach: “It is a strange situation; on one hand, we are happy we took the victory, on the other hand, it is sad to leave the tournament with two wins. We are proud of the quality of the game we produced tonight.”
Yuji Nishida, top scorer of Japan with 30 points: “We played very well as a team, and it is sad we cannot go to the next round; it was anyway good to win, it is something we will take on for next year.”