Fabiana leads Brazilian teammates mingling with the fans after victory over Russia
Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, August 14, 2016 – Captain Fabiana Claudino boasted optimism when commented about the Brazilian victory over Russia on Sunday night and the highly anticipated match against China in Tuesday’s quarterfinals of the women’s volleyball tournament at Rio 2016 Olympic Games.
Fabiana Claudino, Captain of Brazil: Our blocking played a key part for us today against a big team like Russia. The score does not matter as the important thing is to get the win. Now we have to prepare for China, a great opponent and we anticipate a big battle. I expect to win that match and I feel confident about it. We are prepared to play five sets if that is the case.
Natalia Pereira, Player of Brazil: It was a great match against a very tough opponent. We were able to neutralize their attacks. Our team is shorter than the Russian but we blocked very well and touched a lot of balls to prepare our counterattacks. After the big difference of eight points in the third set our level of concentration was a little bit down and maybe we were too relaxed. But we recovered to win.
Nataliya Goncharova, Player of Russia: Many things went wrong from our side and we didn’t do many of the plays we usually make. You have to give credit to Brazil, of course, for playing a great game today but we also made too many mistakes.
Yana Shscherban, Player of Russia: They (Brazilians) were better than us, but we also contributed to the loss with our errors. These things happen in the sport. The opponent plays better and you make mistakes.