Serbia - Macedonia (full match)

The hosts of Serbia opened the tournament in Nis with a flawless victory over Macedonia 3:0 (25:22, 25:22, and 25:23) in 78 minutes of play. Nikola Gjorgiev of Macedonia topped the scorers’ chart with 24 points, while Nikola Kovacevic scored 13 points for the winners. Serbia started the match playing with ease against a very cautious opponent. However, the hosts could not gain much of an advantage, as the teams went to the first technical time-out at 8:6 for Serbia. After that, the visitors got more relaxed and started creating all sorts of problems for the home side. When they reached just one point of deficit at 20:21, Serbia’s head coach Igor Kolaković had to react with a time-out. The Serbian team settled a little bit after the break, and wrapped up the first set with a couple of good points (25:22). In the second set Macedonia managed to keep up with the hosts until the first technical break (8:7 to Serbia), but after that the home side went 4 points ahead and preserved that lead for a provisional 2:0 lead in sets. The third set started in the same fashion as the previous one, but this time Macedonia fought until the very end. They even grabbed the lead at 23:22 forcing Serbia’s coach Kolaković to call a time-out. After the pause, good blocking by Srecko Lisinac and couple of errors by the guests gave the victory to the home side.

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