YUGOSLAVIA - Russia 0-3

Bad start: Vladimir Batez

Rotterdam, July 10 - In the first match of the World League finals Yugoslavia took the lead right away. Although the distance between the two teams during the first set was not more than two/three points, the Yugoslavs were always ahead. Especially the brothers Grbic showed their strength right away. After the second technical time out (at 16-15), Russia took over the initiative. One of the most striking players was Iakovlev who scored some important points, and lead his team to the first set winning, 23-25.

The second set showed the same image, although in the middle part of the set both teams made quite a lot of errors. Both teams made too many serve faults. In the last part of the set Russia again showed more stability and won the second set with 20-25.

Also the third set Russia exploit its possibilities better, than the disappointing Yugoslav team and won the match with 0-3 in sets.

World League, Final Six, Round 1, Rotterdam, Netherlands, July 10

YUGOSLAVIA - RUSSIA 0-3 (23-25, 20-25, 22-25)

Set duration: 1st - 25 minutes, 2nd - 20 minutes, 3rd - 23 minutes.

Ahoy Hall. Attendance: 500. Referees: Sokulloglu (Turkey) and Azavedo (Portugal).

YUGOSLAVIA: Batez (Pts: 6), Kovac, Boskan, Mester (5), Mijic, Grbic Nikola (3), Grbic Vladimir (12), Geric (3), Vujevic (7), Miljkovic (5), Petkovic, Vusurovic (2).

RUSSIA: Dineikine, Khamouttskin, Olikhver (7), Choulepov (6), Kazakov (15), Mitkov, Tetioukhine (8), Iakovlev (17), Koulechov.

Final Six, Round 1 - other results

Italy - USA 3-1 (25-19, 20-25, 25-22, 25-23)
Brasil - Netherlands 3-0 (25-21, 25-23, 25-21)

Next matches

July 11: YUGOSLAVIA - Netherlands, Italy - Russia, Brasil - USA