Serbia: It's important to keep being confident

(BEIJING, June 29) -- France and Serbia each had one win after playing two matches over the weekend at the Palais des Sports Gerland of Lyon. Both teams are contending for a spot in the World League finals in Tokyo.

In the first match on Friday, France, who currently ranks second in pool A, beat Serbia, ranked third, 17-25, 25-20, 25-23, 25-20 in front of an excited home crowd of 4,100. Despite losing the first set, the French played hard and managed to win the next three sets thanks to good serving and blocking, thus winning two important points to widen the gap with Serbia, their most dangerous opponent in pool A.

France hoped for another victory on Saturday but eventually lost the hard-fought three-set match to Serbia 20-25, 31-33, 19-25. Serbia remained in the lead in the first set and France could do nothing to prevent their first-set loss. In a fierce second-set battle, France had an 8-6 lead at the first technical time-out, but the Serbians came back quickly to gain the lead. Despite a great effort, the French were unable to come back again and finally lost the second set. The third set also went to Serbia.

"I am happy about this victory and above all about how we won this game. It is important for us to keep being confident, and for the rest of the competition," the FIVB website quoted Nikola Gribic, captain of Serbia, as saying. "I think the second set was the real key of the entire match and we proved that we were able to get out of trouble thanks to concentration and motivation."

Only the top two teams from each pool will qualify for the World League semi-finals.