2007 Men's European Volleyball Championship

The Volleyball European Championship Men 2007 took place from 6 to 16 September 2007 Russia. The German team did not qualify this time, after they had missed the finals two years ago, and finally finished in fifth place. New European champion Spain. For the first time took part in 16 teams. The Games were held in Moscow and Saint Petersburg.

Mode

The tournament began with a preliminary round in four groups (A -D ), each with four teams. The winner of a game group received two points, the loser one point. The top three teams in each group reached the second round. There are two groups of six (E and F) were formed, and the results were taken from the direct duels of the first round. The two best teams in the two groups reached the semi-finals, in which the pairings were drawn. The semi-final winners determined the new European Champion in the final. The other placement matches took place.

Schedule

First round

In the opening game of Group A Serbia scored a clear victory against the Netherlands, with the 2:3 their chances of reaching the next round further reduced a day later against Greece. The German team continued its positive trend of recent months and started the tournament with a 3-1 victory over Serbia. The first victory was followed by a 3-0 win over Greece. On the final day of the preliminary round but the team of Stelian Moculescu was defeated in the next duel with 0:3. Since the Greeks then missed against Serbia a place in the second round, Germany took the defeat in the second phase of the tournament.

In Group B, Russia prevailed without dropping a set. The Belgians go after the 0-3 against the Eastern Europeans two wins, while the Poles handed a victory against the winless Turks to qualify for the second round.

In Group C, Spain and France reached in lockstep to the next round. The neighbors won their first two games 3-1 and 3-0, respectively, before Spain prevailed in a direct duel 3-0. Slovenia was eliminated by a 1-3 against Slovakia.

In group D were at the end of three teams tied. Finland showed his qualities already in the first game against Italy, which was lost only in the tiebreak. With two wins the outsider managed to win the group ahead of Bulgaria. The Eastern Europeans defeated the Italians spoiled by success at club level in the last preliminary round game 3-0. Croatia had to return home after three defeats.

Second Round

On the first day of group E, which was formed from the best teams in the preliminary round group A and C, the German team was successful again and sat down in three sets against Slovakia by. Spain remained unbeaten and between Serbia and France, the decision was made only in the tiebreak. A day later, Serbia won again and France suffered their second defeat 2:3. The DVV - selection, however, missed a great opportunity. Against Spain, the German team could not use the set points in the third and fourth set. The final success against France no longer helped the German men to the semi-finals, because of Spain against Serbia gave two sets and the Eastern Europeans thus helped to a place among the top four.

Germany played with Christian Pampel, Markus Steuerwald, Max Günthör, Jochen Schoeps, Marcus Popp, Frank Dehne, Björn Andrae, Robert Kromm, Stefan Hübner, Georg Grozer, Ralph Bergmann and Simon Tischer.

In group F ( with the best teams in the preliminary round Group B and D) Russia had to go after the 3-0 win against Bulgaria twice over the full distance, but remained unbeaten. Finland continued its successful appearance at these championships and finally reached the semifinals as the tournament for some well-known teams was terminated prematurely. Italy remained only the third place in the group of six. Poland lost all matches in the second round and was eliminated as a group from Last.

Placement matches

In the semifinals, Russia prevailed in three sets against Serbia. Spain had significantly more problems with the free aufspielenden Finns and needed the tiebreaker for the final. Serbia won the match for third place. The finale went the full distance. Spain was able to offset a 1:2 residue with a 30:28 in the fourth set and won the tie-break 16:14. With the 3-2 victory, Spain was the first time European champions.

End figures

Individual Awards

Russia lost the final, but had the most valuable player of the tournament in his team. Semen Poltavskiy was also best Aufschläger. Most of the other individual awards went to players of the two finalists. Only in the scorer scoring an actor of the Third Serbia was ahead.

Qualification

In addition to host Russia, which also is the reigning European runners-up, were the teams that places one to seven occupied in the 2005 European Championship, automatically qualified. These are defending champions Italy, the third Serbia (then known as Serbia and Montenegro)., The Fourth of Spain, the fifth of Poland, the Sixth and the Seventh Greece France

In six groups of four teams 24 teams played in the summer of 2006 by the remaining nine places. The group winners qualified directly, the runners had an extra playoff round with round-trip game contest.

The group A with Azerbaijan, Belgium, Portugal and Belarus played two tournaments ( June 2 to 4 in Portugal, June 16 to 18 in Belarus ). The Belgians won the group in front of the White Russians.

In Group B with Denmark, Slovakia, Czech Republic and Hungary, the winner was determined by individual games, which were held from May 27 to July 2. The Slovak Republic succeeded the direct route to EM, the Czechs had in the playoff round.

In Group C, the German team met with Bulgaria, Latvia and Romania. After a home defeat against the Bulgarians ( 2:3 ) and a 3-2 win over Latvia lost the team of Stelian Moculescu 1:3 in Romania, before six days later won the home game against the same opponents 3-0. In Latvia also achieved a 3:0, but in the last game, the Germans had the Bulgarians again defeated with 2:3, which thus took first place, while the DVV selection had to use the second chance.

In Group D, with Finland, Norway, Turkey and Ukraine found from 26 to 28 May in the Ukraine and from 2nd to 4th of June in Finland two tournaments. Turkey took first place ahead of Finland.

The tournaments of Group E with Bosnia and Herzegovina, Estonia, Israel and Croatia were held on June 2 to 4 in Croatia and from 16th to 18th of June in Estonia instead. The Croats and Estonians also occupied the top two spots in this group.

In Group F, Macedonia, the Netherlands, Sweden and Slovenia played in tournaments from June 1 to 3 in the Netherlands and from 9th to 11th of June in Macedonia. The Netherlands prevailed against Slovenia.

The playoff games of the runners were on 2/3 and 9th September. In Leipzig, the German team made ​​with a 3-0 win against the Czech Republic for the preliminary decision. In the return match in Svitavy she managed another victory in the tiebreak and thus qualified for the final round. Finland won against Estonia also with two wins by ( 3-1 away and 3-0 at home ). In the third duel Slovenia won 3-0 in Belarus and managed, despite the 1:3 home defeat following the qualification.

Media

Originally, the pay- TV channel Arena had the rights to the live broadcast in Germany secured. After the sale of the rights to the Bundesliga at the Premiere channels, however, was dissolved. The rights to the European Volleyball Championship wanted neither Premiere nor assume Euro Sport. Therefore, the reporting in the German television was limited to short articles in the magazines and news programs of ARD and ZDF. Short term, announced laola1.tv the Austrian Internet TV channels to transmit all matches of the German team and other interesting encounters in free live stream.