It will be a clash between Luxembourg and Andorra in the U20 Men‘s gold medal match and a local derby between Irland and Northern Ireland for the bronze.
In today’s semi final, Luxembourg kept its ongoing pace with their third consecutive victory with a full house, beating the Irish squad in three sets, 25-14, 25-21 and 25-18. It was the best game so far by the Luxembourg team that made few mistakes and the team performed to the highest level with very few technical mistakes. It was only in the second set that the Irish team saw some sunlight but they did not manage to move out of the shadow against a well-organized Grand Duchy team. Luxembourg team captain Vincenzo Nadalini was happy at the end of the match and stated: ,We did everything correctly in this match and made very few mistakes. Tomorrow we will fight for the gold medal .‘
Andorra in a hard clash with Northern Ireland
It was a great match with many emotions when Andorra secured its position for the gold medal match. It was a real clash between the teams, Andorra taking the first 2 sets without any major problems, 25-18, 25-14, but then Northern Ireland fought back winning the third set 25-16 and leading the way in the fourth set, aiming for the golden set when Andorra managed to battle back and win 27-25. It was tight in the 4th set and the Northern Ireland team was very disappointed and frustrated at the end after having come so close. In the same sense, there was relief and joy taking over the court for the Andorra team that will play for the gold with the backup of the home crowd tomorrow where they will meet their rivals from Luxembourg. Andorra’s Head Coach, Jose Garcia, was satisfied with the first 2 sets but claimed that the reception was stressful from the third set onwards the team managed to overcome the situation in the end which was the most important factor.
CEV Small Countries Association 