Ocal: “Sports are often unfair”

Yunus Ocal thanked the National Women’s Volleyball players for the effort in a difficult group at the European Championship, he believes that the two sets were decided in the details and they should feel proud, he focused on the experiences they gained, while he expressed some complaints from the whistles of the referees.

Analytically: “First of all, I want to say a big ‘thank you’ to my athletes because it was not easy to play in such a tournament with such intense rhythms. Sometimes we couldn’t recover, mainly mentally in some matches. Today, I’m really proud of my team because they really lost in the details against one of the top teams in the world.

The word ‘key’ is a microcosm of our whole run in the tournament… From the first to the last match, some details cost us. For sure, we gained a lot of experience and if these girls play next season in their teams, then next summer they will help the National team a lot more.

Finally, to the question if he considers it fair that the Greek team will not continue in the “16” of the European Championship: “The result is not fair, but life and sports are not fair. You’ve seen in all the games the referees blow the whistles backwards in our matches, but I don’t want to dwell on off-match problems, to look for excuses. We have to win even in these conditions, because that’s how you acquire a winning mentality.”

For his part, Daniele Santarelli emphasized that: “Everyone thought it would be easy, but it turned out that we had to play to win. There are four teams, maybe five with Germany without Ortmann, who are at the same level and you have to play well.

Greece is a very good team and we did not play our best game with many mistakes especially in the first. In the second, we were better, but in the third, we didn’t play the way I want. Congratulations to Greece because they gave their best and I hope we will improve because now it will be more difficult.

In our group there was a great balance. We may stand out, but any team could beat any other and even now it is not certain who will go through. Today, Greece really played well, they played their volley and made us suffer.”