French libero Jenia Grebennikov and Samuele Tuia played good defence in the victory
Katowice, Poland, September 18, 2014 – French coach Laurent Tillie gave credit to the hard work of his players during a seven-week period of preparation ahead of the world championship. Now they are on the verge of a medal.
France coach Laurent Tillie: “I’m very happy for the victory. We were afraid of this team, we saw them playing in Florence in Final Six of World League. The setter and middle players are very quick, although they are not the tallest. Qualification is fantastic for us. Two years ago we didn’t even qualify at the European Championships. This year we didn’t win our group in the World League. I gave my team three weeks after that and then we trained for seven weeks with only 2 days off.”
France captain Benjamin Toniutti: “It’s an amazing feeling. We are among the four best teams in the world. Thanks to all the players and staff. We are in the semis against Brazil and we will fight like in all the competition. We want to be in a medal position, it’s our goal.”
Iran coach Slobodan Kovac: “Congratulations to French team. We tried to fight in the1st set, but France was better. After the first set I wanted to give a chance to substitute players. We’re getting ready for the Asian games and I must have all 12 players ready. The day after tomorrow we have to be better. We played very well, but last two matches we didn’t play good volleyball.”
Iran captain Mir Saeid Marouflakrani: “Congratulations to France, they played really great. We had a little chance today, after first set everything was finished. Our substitute players played really well and fought in tie-break.”