Toyama, Japan, September 18, 2015 – Russia defeated Egypt 3-0 (25-20, 26-24, 25-18) in the FIVB World Cup at Toyama City Gymnasium on Friday.
Russia coach Vladimir Alekno: As we won, it’s good. They pressured us a lot with their services so it was hard to catch up with them, but it was a good lesson for us to face these good serves. We had some tough matches here but were able to win them all 3-0, so for the team it was a good result.
Russia captain Dmitriy Muserskiy: Overall, I think we played well, although we’re not used to starting games at midday. Also, Egypt were on form and ahead at times. We struggled at the start but overall I think we did well.
Egypt coach Nehad Shehata: I used my match today to repair my team and to get experience because we have upcoming matches against Tunisia, Venezuela and Iran. We know Russia is a strong team with good players, so I used this match to give my players experience and to prepare my team for the next round in Tokyo. We played well today, especially in the second set, but the main difference was between an experienced team and a non-experienced team and experienced players and non-experienced players.
I was very happy in Toyama. It’s a nice place and I was happy they invited students to see our matches. Some had Egyptian flags and encouraged my players, so I want to thank the Toyama students and the people of Toyama.
Egypt captain Ahmad Abdelhay: Our team played well today, better than yesterday, but they were able to use the experience of their players to finish the second set. They had good service and blocking and this was the difference between players with experience and players who don’t have experience. But we played better and this will help us for our matches in Tokyo.