Berlin, GERMANY, September 13 (www.volleyball2003.de) - In a fifth set thriller the team from France surprisingly bet titleholder Serbia&Montenegro with 3:2 (25:22, 19:25, 25:20, 22:25, 16:14) and therefore will be the opponent of Italy in tomorrow's final of the Volleyball European Championship. Serbia&Montenegro will play against Russia for the bronze medal.
Both teams started on a very high level in the match, which was to decide who will make it into the final. The rallies very extremely close and on the highest level. It was the team from France who took the first lead (11:8) because the defence worked twice against Vladimir Grbic. France played very tactically and served with tricky serves al well as jump-serves but Serbia&Montenegro came back to 14:15. Every once in while France took off but Serbia&Montenegro always caught up (19:20). Then the French captain Daquin killed a block and Serbia&Montenegro was forced to take a time-out at 19:22. The French didn't give the lead away and took the set home with 25:22.
The spectators saw fantastic rallies right away in the second set. In most of the rallies the ball crossed the net several times before being killed (7:7). This time none of the two teams could take the lead. After an attack of Ivan "the terrible" Miljkovic above the block of the only 1.85 meters tall Patin the titleholder went into the second technical time-out with a 16:14 lead. Given the class of the two teams the 21:16 for Serbia&Montenegro was already the decision of the set. Serbia&Montenegro decided the set in their favour 25:19.
France took off to 3:0 in the third set and Serbia&Montenegro immediately had a time-out. The time-out helped, the team scored three points in a row and this time it was the French team to take the time-out (3:3). Milan Vasic came in for the star attacker Miljkovic because he showed a poor performance (3:5). The titleholder seemed really annoyed by the score, but after bad serves of Vladimir Grbic France went into the technical time-out with 8:5. Until the second technical time-out France had even broadened the gap to 16:12. The third of the World Championship did not give away the set (25:20).
The best defence-team of the tournament and probably in the world, France, entertained the 4,400 spectators in the forth set. Vladimir Gribic needed three tries to kill the ball from the backcourt. After V. Gribic, who played more aggressively now, scored twice the score was 7:7. Serbia&Montenegro led 12:10 after two failed attacks of Antiga. The gap had broadened to 16:11 until the second technical time-out. At 18:18 nothing was decided yet. The set became a real thriller. But this time Serbia&Montenegro kept their cool, played better than France and took the set home (25:22).
After a backcourt attck of Vujevic Serbia&Montenegro took off to 4:2. Blain reacted and took a time-out. The team from Serbia&Montenegro gave the two points lead away with a bad attack but won the next point in a spectacular rally (7:6). All the two teams wanted was to make it into the final and therefore they fought as hard as never before in the match (11:11). At 13:13 still none of the teams dominated. Capet hit the ball against the block and France had the first match ball (14:13). Vujevic defended in the second attempt but France scored again (15:14). This time France used the match ball (16:14).
