Serbia made an impressive debut against Italy to cap Saturday's actions at Maracanazinho
Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, August 6, 2016 – Italy’s coach Marco Bonitta praised the quality of opponent Serbia and predicted they will battle for one of the medals at the women’s volleyball tournament of the Rio 2016 Olympic Games.
Bonitta made his comments during the post-game press conference held following the loss in straight sets to Serbia in the sixth and last match of day one on Saturday.
Maja Ognjenovic, Captain of Serbia: It was a big battle in the first set and both teams played very well. We were a little nervous and excited because of the first match but then we relaxed. We still made some mistakes but hopefully we can reduce that and continue playing better in our next matches.
Zoran Terzic, Coach of Serbia: I expected to win the first match, of course. But playing in the Olympic Games is very different. You need to play good from the start. We did play well against Italy and I am satisfied with the victory. We beat a very good team.
Tijana Boskovic, Player of Serbia
On their first victory in the Rio 2016 Olympic Games:
“We are so happy that we won because it’s very important to get a victory at the start of the Olympic Games. We played well but I think we can do better in the succeeding matches. There were some mistakes in this match against Italy, which we will try to fix tomorrow when we review the match. I think all the girls gave their great energy to win this match against Italy.”
On having two good opposite players in the team:
“I am still young and (Jovana) Brakocevic is much more experienced than I am. Of course, I am learning well from her because she teaches me a lot.”
On her goals in Rio 2016:
“I think the most important thing for us is to play well in our group, then if have a good ranking, it would be easier for us to focus on the bigger things.”
Antonella Del Core, Captain of Italy: The start of the match is too late but I have to congratulate Serbia team because they played a strong game. We made mistakes and couldn’t find solution for our attack. I hope we can improve in our next matches.
Marco Bonitta, Coach of Italy: Congratulations to Serbia. In my opinion they are going to fight for one of the medals, I don’t know which one. They are a very good team and we have played a lot of times. We know that we can play better and improve our game but today, Serbia played better than us in the important points.