Azerbaijan pins high hopes on volleyball team at Euro-2017
By Amina Nazarli
Azerbaijan pins high hopes on the national volleyball team at the 2017 women’s EuroVolley.
Azerbaijan and Georgia will jointly host the Final Round of the 2017 CEV Volleyball European Championship – Women from September 22 to October 1, 2017.
Famil Agayev, the second coach of the national volleyball team, is sure that Azerbaijan can take first place in its group.
Talking to reporters in Baku on September 21, Agayev said that the preparations for the Championship went well and the team is set to win.
“Our opponents are strong, we will fight to the end, and the game will show everything,” said the coach.
Agayev continued that no one in the team wants to repeat the game of 2015, when the national team took the 4th place at the Euro Games in Baku.
The team is optimistic about the future, and also hopes to please the fans with better results, he said.
Speaking about the team leaders, Agayev said that Natalia Mammadova and Elizaveta Samadova are in good shape.
“As for the libero [a defensive specialist position], she will most likely be Kristina Yagubova. There are certain problems with ball reception, but we are working on it,” he concluded.
The European Championship will last 10 days, and its winner will be determined on October 1.
The current champion of Europe is the Russian team. The games will be held in Baku (National Arena of Gymnastics, Groups A and C), in Goygol (Olympic Sports Complex, Group D) and Tbilisi (Sports Palace, Group B). Starting with the play-off round all the games of the 1/4 finals, as well as semi-finals, a duel for "bronze" and a match for "gold" will be held in Baku.
National team captain Odina Bayramova emphasized that Azerbaijan is one of the favorites of the Championship.
“To be honest, your question caught me off guard. I did not plan to answer it, but since you asked ... There are favorites in the Group, at the stages of the playoffs, and at further stages. But I think that this is Azerbaijan, as well as Serbia, Turkey and Russia, with whom I would like to play in the finals,” she said.
The competition will be attended by 16 best teams of the Old World, divided into four groups.
Group A will include teams from Azerbaijan, Germany, Poland and Hungary, Group B - Georgia, Italy, Belarus and Croatia, Group C - Russia, Ukraine, Turkey and Bulgaria, and finally D - Serbia, Czech Republic, the Netherlands and Belgium.
Teams that will take the first places in their groups automatically go to the quarterfinals, and the teams that have settled in the second and third places will play in the playoff knock-off round for participation in this stage of the championship.
The teams of the two host countries 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 semi-finals will take place on Saturday, September 30 before the competition reaches its climax on October 1 with the medal matches.
--
Amina Nazarli is AzerNews’ staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @amina_nazarli
Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz
