These Blues are stunning.
On the verge of elimination after three group matches, Laurent Tillie's players will play in the first Olympic semi-final of French volleyball thanks to their victory in the tie-break over Poland (21-25, 25-22, 21- 25, 25-21 and 15-9).
Libero Jenia Grebennikov would almost pinch herself to believe it ...
How did you manage to win this meeting?
JENIA GREBENNIKOV.
I don't know, it's amazing.
The first four sets were super tight.
In the tie-break, we said we have ten minutes.
We had lost the first two in the pool.
Maybe it helped us.
We attacked him thoroughly, telling ourselves that we had nothing to lose.
They were a little scared, we slowed them down from the start and that made the difference.
After that we did not give up.
We did a big job.
How do you come back to the start of the fourth set?
(Smile)
I don't remember.
When we are in it, we do not realize.
We know that they have a lot of power in the service, so we know that we will cash in the playoffs.
But we have to stay hooked so that they don't take a five or six point lead like in the first set.
If we hang on, it puts them in doubt.
Afterwards, we responded with our weapons, the service, the block, the defense to counter their big attackers.
We were able to make them thwart at the end.
đ đ«đ· đ”đ± Capitalized feat of the volleyball Blues who released the reigning Polish world champions in the fifth set after a crazy quarter-final # Tokyo2020 #Olympic
Games Follow the Olympics live â¶ ïž https://t.co/oQuEFfAwUc pic .twitter.com / tbLXc98Dja
- francetvsport (@francetvsport) August 3, 2021
Yes, ten days ago ...
(
He cuts)
No, I wouldn't have believed it!
I knew it was possible, we are capable of anything.
Like what, at the Olympic Games, anything is possible.
I'm happy because we really play as a team, there isn't one guy that stands out.
Everyone brings something at the right time, that's cool.
We must keep this smile, this collective, this group.
We must not fall asleep and remain in concentration on each point.
Is this match the portrait of this team?
Especially the tie-break.
The first four sets, it was still complicated.
We stayed in it, we didn't give up.
They have crumbled a little more by seeking power with individualities.
We joined forces.
And it worked.
You could even count on the support of a small French clan ...
It was great, it brings back good memories, when there were people in the theaters.
It's true that the few Polish fans were very present at the beginning, after they died out⊠It's good to have people, even if it's very few.
We know that there are people behind us, we try to keep this energy so as not to fall asleep.
If we fall asleep it's over, there is no one left.
We tell each other jokes, we do anything, it keeps us awake because the game is very long.
What do you think of the semi-final against Argentina?
They have more or less the same game as us, it is not an easy team to play, which receives very well, which has very good central, Conte
(Editor's note: the receiver-attacker)
is in incredible form. It will be complicated because it is the surprise of these Olympic Games. The Argentines have the grinta, they too do not give up. We will have to hold on, I hope that the collective will make the difference. It's going to be a nice poster.
