The German volleyball players lost their small chance of winning the group at the European Championships despite a victory at the preliminary round.
Two days after the early knockout stage, the team of national coach Andrea Giani in Tallinn, Estonia won 3-2 (25:20, 25:17, 25:27, 25:27, 15: 9) against Slovakia, even after losing the first set Olympic champion France no longer to take first place in season D.
This means that the selection of the German Volleyball Association (DVV) is second in the table, it is now on Sunday in Ostrava, Czech Republic, against the third in Group B. Bulgaria is currently on this place, but the game between the Czech Republic and front-runner Italy is still pending.
When saying goodbye to the Baltic States, the 2017 European Championship runner-up had a hard time. Although they won the first two sets with confidence, the Germans made more than 30 errors on serve in the Saku Suurhall and seemed unfocused from the third set onwards. The Slovaks sensed their chance. The team of coach Marek Kardos would have needed a win to advance. An attack from outside Moritz Reichert made the connection possible. After that it remained tight, the Slovaks fended off two match points in the fourth section before they forced extra time. In this, the German team again showed a more stable performance.
The German team finished the group stage with four wins from five games, only the duel with France was lost. “We're pretty well on course,” said outside attacker Christian Fromm before the Slovakia game: “We can definitely go on like this. The round of 16 was the absolute minimum goal. Giani was also satisfied: "Overall, the first games were positive."