Russia's Vladimir Alekno says his team needs to improve certain areas of its game
Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, August 13, 2016 – Vladimir Alekno was happy to win the five-setter against world champions Poland on Saturday but the Russian coach still thinks his team needs to fine-tune certain aspects of its game.
Vladimir Alekno, Coach of Russia: We really needed this victory. We won but we need to move forward to win the succeeding matches. We had some technical mistakes, I think it’s because we were nervous a little bit in this match.
Sergey Tetyukhin, Captain of Russia: We are happy to win this very difficult match because we played the full five sets. We really needed to win this match. The match was really exciting and I want to say thank you to Poland for playing well too.
Stephane Antiga, Coach of Poland: In the first three sets, only one team dominated. Russia were doing very well. We couldn’t do anything, especially when Russia was spiking very well. I am not sure if it’s still possible to be first in the group because I did not compute the points coming into this match. I am happy for my team and I liked their intensity in this match. They played at a high level, but of course, I would prefer to win.
Michal Kubiak, Captain of Poland: Congratulations to Team Russia. They had a nice performance tonight. Kurek played an amazing game. Our setter was using him a lot, so it’s normal when one player plays like he did in this match. He was very efficient. He received well and blocked shots, just like everybody else.
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