Javid Gurbanov: Azerbaijan to hold 2017 EuroVolley at high level
By Laman Ismayilova
President of the Azerbaijan Volleyball Federation (AVF) Javid Gurbanov has met with representatives of the Organizing Committee of the 2017 European Championship.
During the event, Gurbanov stressed that Azerbaijan will hold the Final Round of the 2017 CEV Volleyball European Championship at a high level, Report.az informs.
“For many years, Azerbaijan has been hosting international competitions,” he said. “We can say that a great test is waiting the AVF. Women's European Volleyball Championship to be broadcasted in more than 80 countries will be held in Baku and Goygol. Despite the fact that the European Championship is held together with Georgia, great responsibility lies on Azerbaijan. Because semi-final and final games of three groups will be held in our country", he said.
The AVF president expressed confidence that the Azerbaijani team will achieve high result in the competition.
Head Coach of Azerbaijan women's volleyball team Faig Garayev is also confident of successful matches in the competition.
Further, delegates of the Organizing Committee for 2017 CEV Volleyball European Championship made speeches. They emphasized that will spare no effort in organizing the European Championships.
The teams of the two host countries, Azerbaijan and Georgia, will open the programme of the 2017 Women’s EuroVolley on September 22 when they take on Hungary and Italy before a partisan home crowd in Baku and Tbilisi, respectively.
More matches will be played on September 22 with Germany taking on Poland and Belarus playing Croatia in Pool A and B, respectively.
Action in Pool C and D will get underway on September 22 as well with defending champions Russia playing their neighbors from Ukraine early in the afternoon at Baku’s National Gymnastics Arena.
Rio 2016 Olympic silver medalists Serbia take on the Czech Republic and 2015 European silver medal winners the Netherlands go for a ‘derby’ with Belgium in Ganja/Goygol on the opening day of Pool D.
The group stage of the competition will last for four days before action resumes on September 26 and 27 with the Playoffs followed by the quarterfinals scheduled for September 28 and 29.
The semi-finals will take place on Saturday, September 30 before the competition reaches its climax on October 1 with the medal matches.
Russia have won the last two editions of the women’s European Championship in 2013 and 2015, beating hosts Germany and the Netherlands in the respective gold medal matches.
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Laman Ismayilova is AzerNews’ staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @Lam_Ismayilova
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