Paris (AFP)
Seven weeks after changing coach, Serbia won its third title of European volleyball champion, after 2001 and 2011, driven by an exceptional point, Aleksandar Atanasijevic, of the class of legend Ivan Miljkovic.
In the space of a month and a half, Serbia showed two totally different faces, corrected (3-0) in August in Bari by Italy at the Olympic and Imperial qualification tournament at the European Championship, where it was won his nine games.
Between the two competitions, Nikola Grbic, the former Olympic champion smuggler, was thanked and replaced by Slobodan Kovac to start again on a new basis: a paying change.
The Euro-2019 was supposed to be the clash between the megastars of the world volleyball, the Cuban naturalized Polish Wilfredo Leon and the French Earvin Ngapeth. Finally, it was the sharp Aleksandar Atanasijevic who dazzled the 12,654 spectators of the arena of Paris-Bercy, stormed Sunday by the green apple supporters of Slovenia.
Leonardo's teammate from Perugia, Atanasijevic was uncompromising in important moments, especially in the tie-break of the semifinal against France (15-7), where he missed none of his five attacks, and made a counter.
- Atanasijevic decisive -
In the heart of the Serbian fans, he has not yet replaced the huge Ivan Miljkovic, Olympic champion in Sydney in 2000, and present in the first two European titles in 2001 and 2011. However, he gets closer to them with 22 points in the final to glean the third European gold, even if he had to leave the honorary MVP title to his teammate Uros Kovacevic.
For Slovenia, the race to the semi-finals in a Stozice Arena in Ljubljana still full, has confirmed its installation among the best nations of the continent, after the surprise final lost in 2015 against France in Sofia. She has achieved two feats by eliminating Russia, defending champion, and Poland, double world champion (2014, 2018).
A little more than three months after the European Championship, the two teams will have to go back to fight to get the last European ticket for the Olympic Games in Tokyo, and join Poland, Russia and Italy, already qualified since August 2019.
It will be in Berlin from January 5 to 10, 2020, with equally strong competition: France -championne d'Europe 2015 and 4th in 2019-, Germany -vice-champion of Europe 2017- Bulgaria or the countries -Low.
© 2019 AFP