We believed in victory – Russia coach Mikhail Nikolaev

Dubai, United Arab Emirates, August 31, 2015 – Russia won the gold medal after defeating Turkey 3-1 in the final game of the FIVB Men’s U23 World Championship at Al Nasr Club, on Monday. Russia coach Mikhail Nikolaev said that they believed the victory. Read more about coaches’ and captains’ opinions.

Russia coach Mikhail Nikolaev: It was a very difficult tournament. Preparing for the tournament was also hard for us. We missed some players before the tournament. For example, our opposite Alexander Kimerov is a middle blocker. Today we played a difficult match. But we believed in victory.

Russia player and MVP Egor Kliuka: Honestly I did not expect to win the MVP award. It is incredible. I am very happy. It was a hard tournament for us. Sometimes we struggled a lot during seven games. But the most important thing is we won the championship. We played many games against Turkey and our team spirit helped us to win today.

Turkey coach
Emanuele Zanini: In every competition, the team who loses the last match
is not happy. I think today we were really close to Russia but they had
something more especially physical. For the points, the difference
between them and us is only two points in total. We were really close
but we needed something more. Also we need the habit of playing this
kind of competition for the future. Today somebody was a little bit
nervous and did not offer the same performance. This is final, this is
life. We congratulate Russia. But this is a historical result for us,
silver medal is very important for Turkish volleyball. And I would like
to thank to all my players and all my staff for this great job.

Turkey
captain Burak Gungor: Final games are always very hard and this one was
not different. Russia is a very strong team. Both teams played seven
consecutive games so we were very tired but it was a high level game.
Russia played better than us and they were luckier. Congratulations to
Russia team. Now we are in the second position in the world. This is the
biggest success for Turkish volleyball in men’s. We are happy to win
the first world medal for our country but also sorry for losing the
final.