"We were coming from nowhere", expressed coach Tillie after the win over Serbia
Lodz, Poland, September 13, 2014 - Coach Laurent Tillie not only praised their players but also had some good words for Serbia's Aleksandar Atanasijevic and Srecko Lisinac, who were "difficult to stop" for his team.
Serbia captain Dragan Stankovic: "This is going to be similar than after the last match. We knew how to start well and yet again we repeated the same mistakes as two days ago, to start with a large number of missed serves. We had a good defence but couldn't change that into points from counter-attack. With this result, we have lost every chance to go further, but we have one more game to go and hopefully we will finish playing high level."
France captain Benjamin Toniutti: "We've had a lot of pressure. Five teams in our pool were close to the third round - if we wanted to keep our chances we had to win. We didn't start very good, I think a lot of people thought we would go down after the first part, but we began playing very well and found the solution to win. We are happy with these three points and now we will see what happens in the next game, whether that result will give us an automatic ticket or if we have to fight again tomorrow."
Serbia coach Igor Kolakovic: "The difference between us was an attack after the bad reception, energy and patience. We were able to dig the balls but we couldn't exchange them into points. We stopped our game during the fourth set and I don't know why. For us, this World Championship is over; we expected a lot of this game and the whole event, so we are very disappointed."
France coach Laurent Tillie: "Serbia is a really strong opponent. We were coming from nowhere to this tournament, starting from the bottom, not taken as a favourite by anyone. But we try to improve in each match and these are the results. Atanasijevic and Lisinac scored so many points today and were difficult to stop, but we stayed focused and calmed even after the first set. I want to congratulate my players and hope we will continue like this."