Azernews.Az

By Abdul Kerimkhanov

Azerbaijani men's national volleyball team won the Luxembourg team with a score of 3:1, thus taking the second position in the group.

The national volleyball team took part in the match of the fifth round of the European Championship qualifying tournament. The Azerbaiajni team met with Luxembourg, which is an outsider of the group. To strengthen their chances in the group G, Azerbaijan had to beat the opponent and achieve important victory. The match ended with the score 3:1 (25:18, 27:25, 21:25, 25:20).

Rasul Ibrahimov became the most productive volleyball player of the match. The leader of Azerbaijani attacks scored 18 points, Parviz Samedov - 16, 13 are on the account of Vugar Bayramov.

After the game, Rasul Ibrahimov congratulated all his teammates, noting that the players did everything to win. He expressed hope that Azerbaijan will show a good game and achieve the desired result against Sweden team in the next match.

In turn, head coach of men's national volleyball team Farid Jalalov shared his impressions of the victory over Luxembourg. He noted that Azerbaijan is in second place, but the situation in the group may change. He said that two main volleyball players are absent for various reasons, so, the team will play with the squad that went to the game against Luxembourg.

In a parallel match, the teams of Greece and Sweden met, in which the Greeks, who secured first place in the group, confidently beat the opponent with a score of 3:0. As a result, the Scandinavians, who are in third place, are three points behind Azerbaijan.

Azerbaijani men's volleyball team before the last match of the European Championship qualifying tournament is in a better position compared with Sweden. Because the first criterion for determining the place of a team in the table is the number of victories. In Azerbaijan's case, it is much better (3 wins while Scandinavians have only one). In addition, the difference of the sets is also in favor of Azerbaijan: 11-11 against 7-13.

However, there is one nuance. According to the regulations, the team scores gained in matches with the national team, that will occupy the last place in the group, will not be included to the final results. It, apparently, will be Luxembourg. So everything will finally become clear after the fight on January 9 in Stockholm, where Azerbaijani team needs a victory.

According to the qualifying tournament results, the winners of the groups automatically receive vouchers for EURO, as well as five teams from second places with the best performance.

Group “G” table after five rounds:

Greece - 14 points (15-2)

Azerbaijan - 8 points (11-11)

Sweden - 5 points (7-13)

Luxembourg - 3 points (7-14)

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Abdul Kerimkhanov is AzerNews’ staff journalist, follow him on Twitter: @AbdulKerim94

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