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The defending Golden #EuroLeagueM champions from Turkey started on the right foot their 2021 campaign after outclassing at 3-1 the team of the Czech Republic. On Friday, the players around head coach Nedim Ozbey showed better motivation and on the road to retaining the 2019 title, seized an important victory vs the inspired team of Czechia. In a match that lasted 104 minutes, it was the better performance on the block (13) and on the serving line (11 aces) that helped the team of Turkey to emerge victorious. On Saturday, the action in Pool C will bring the battles  Turkey vs Portugal and Czech Republic vs the hosts of the first tournament in the group, Belarus. 

- The first set was a point for a point race,  Jan Hadrava from the Czech Republic was contributing the most on attack for his team's good performance, but the excellent play on the net by Murat Yenipazar and Bedirhan Bülbül with two blocks each in the set became the key to the success in this part. 

- Hadrava and his players stepped up their game and pushing hard on the attack and on the block, were leading at 16-12. Turkey's coach Ozbey called a time-out and it worked as his team tied the score  at 18-18. In the moments after, both teams let some errors on the serving line affect the score but it was again Hadrava who took the responsability and with a successful attack recorded a break point for 23-21 and helped his team to bring back the intrigue in the fixture.

- Turkey's star, Adis Lagumdzija took things in his hands afterwards, performing well on the attack and topping the charts in these moments. With 16 winning spikes and five aces, Turkey got back on track taking the lead. 

-  The 2019 champions stormed out in the beginning of the fourth set with four aces (leading 10-5), but Czech Republic weren't giving up. With sharp attacks they got closer to their opponents, but it wasn't enough for them to bring the match into a tie-break. 

- Adis Lagumdzija became a top scorer with 25 points, while Jan Hadrava recorded 24 to his name. 

"This is the first time that this team with this roster play an international match, but we are happy to have shown our game and won. The opponents are very strong and this adds a greater value to the victory"

Nedim Ozbey

Head coach, Turkey

"It was a very difficult game because Czech Republic are very strong. We are a young team, but we have a good group of players, and we play like a team. We have two more matches here, we are looking forward to them!"

Burak Güngör

Captain, Turkey