CEV Men’s European Championship 2019 - hosts France, Slovenia, Belgium and the Netherlands

Slovenia-Russia 2-0. Russia on the verge of being eliminated

Not changing Volkov with Mikhaylov is kind of scandalous.

Slovenia is doing their job and waiting Russian mistakes. Volkov is helping them enormously

Quote from scarpetta

Not changing Volkov with Mikhaylov is kind of scandalous.

Slovenia is doing their job and waiting Russian mistakes. Volkov is helping them enormously

Yeah both Kiluka and Volkov are not on their usual level today. Volkov had a 19 point performance in the previous match so I'm not sure what's happening

Now Russia seems to have woken up lol

What the hell Volkov is still doing in there?

If Russia are out, then there's no team can stop Poland.

OMG, how many net touches have Russia got today?

I don't think Slovena is playing anything special, Russia is killing themselves thru their errors

Using Mikhaylov as serving sub while Volkov is playing worst game of his life...Poor coaching.

russia was the male version of dominican republic team today , terrible

i dont know why volvich is still on NT, he is just useless

So Russia just beat a strong USA team a few months ago to claim VNL gold and now they got defeated by Slovenia. And mind you Russia beat Slovenia in straight sets in Pool play. I'm not sure what is happening with them it seems they always under-perform whenever the veterans go back to the team.. Maybe a case of too many stars perhaps?

This is the first result for Sammelvuo with the NT that has resulted in a failure after a pretty good year winning Russian championship, VNL, and Olympic qualifiers. This result is a disaster for the Men's team to say the least.

What a great crowd in Ljubljana!

Urnaut is an underrated player, he has so many shots and uses them wisely

slovenia did it. After 3rd set i thought that Russia would win this game.

In the game against Bulgaria and today slovenia served really well. 11 aces in 4 sets.

I did not expect this result. Russia is the kind of team that has a great serve and block and that make the difference in a game. But slovenia served really well and that helped them a lot.

I still dont think they can beat Poland but if they can serve like today at least we will see a great game.

Volkov did not play so good, i think he should have been replaced.

Nice to see a full gym in semi.

Kudos to Slovenia for winning such a big game against Russia. Is it the first time in vb history that Slovenia beats Russia?

While it's not impossible for Slovenia to win as an underdog, what's hard to believe is that they still grabbed the victory with their offense being highly concentrated at the left wing, due to a weakened, aging Gasparini. Their OHs, Urnaut and Cebulj, seem to have unlimited stamina to handle such a heavy duty of all elements of volleyball throughout the game.

Quote from inc0gnito

So Russia just beat a strong USA team a few months ago to claim VNL gold and now they got defeated by Slovenia. And mind you Russia beat Slovenia in straight sets in Pool play. I'm not sure what is happening with them it seems they always under-perform whenever the veterans go back to the team.. Maybe a case of too many stars perhaps?

Home crowd was nuts for Slovenia. I can see why Urnaut and Cebulj were highly motivated for this game as revenge for the loss in the earlier round.

Quote from inc0gnito

So Russia just beat a strong USA team a few months ago to claim VNL gold and now they got defeated by Slovenia. And mind you Russia beat Slovenia in straight sets in Pool play. I'm not sure what is happening with them it seems they always under-perform whenever the veterans go back to the team.. Maybe a case of too many stars perhaps?

Neither European Ch nor VNL are serious competitions. No one should worry or get too happy about performance in them. I mean, in last euro we saw Germany and Belgium in semis...

The only relevant and 100% serious competitions in modern international volleyball are WCh, OG and their qualifiers. Unlike 20 years ago, nothing else matters anymore.

Quote from LDvolley

Neither European Ch nor VNL are serious competitions. No one should worry or get too happy about performance in them. I mean, in last euro we saw Germany and Belgium in semis...

The only relevant and 100% serious competitions in modern international volleyball are WCh, OG and their qualifiers. Unlike 20 years ago, nothing else matters anymore.

ECH is still important. Poland acquiring Leon just made this tournament feel so hopeless. It's like Durant coming to the Warriors kind of feeling like just give them the trophy already.

Russia 1:3 Slovenia

What a disaster. Thomas may get fired before Tokyo 2020. It makes no sense to use VNL as excuses. No one cares about VNL. Show your real power at WCH or EVCH, or just go home. Kobzar was never a reliable setter in clutch time. He's lucky to perform well in Russia league final. Volkov should be kicked out of NT.