MEF-05, SERBIA v CZECH REPUBLIC, Match Centre

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Overview

Serbia come into this eighthfinals as the absolute winners of Pool B, where they won all their five matches, losing only one set along the way. Coach Slobodan Kovač has had the luxury of using all available players on the court and they all have shown reliability and high-level performance, a testament to the great depth of Serbia’s roster. Czech Republic finished fourth in Pool D in the Netherlands on a win-loss record of 2-3. Jan Hadrava is clearly their player to watch. Not only did he hammer a tournament-high of 10 aces against Montenegro, but he has been consistent in his quality serving (second in the current tournament ranking) and quality spiking (fourth). On a total tally of 111 points, including 21 aces, Hadrava holds the third position in the scorers chart after the pool stage. The winner of this match will meet the winner of the match between Belgium and Ukraine in a quarterfinal clash on September 24.

Head-to-head
• Serbia (incl. predecessors) have a W7-L6 record against Czech Republic (incl. as Czechoslovakia) in European Championship matches.
• Serbia have won each of their last five European Championship encounters with Czech Republic. Their last defeat came in the 1987 qualification match for place 5-8, when Czechoslovakia beat Yugoslavia in five sets.
• Serbia won their most recent European Championship encounter against Czech Republic in straight sets in the 2009 preliminary round.
• Serbia and Montenegro defeated Czech Republic 3-1 in the 2005 European Championship preliminary round in Belgrade Arena.
• Yugoslavia beat Czech Republic in straight sets in the 1999 European Championship bronze medal match.

Serbia
• Serbia are hoping to claim their third European Championship title, after 2001 (as Yugoslavia) and 2011.
• Serbia can become the fourth country to win at least three European titles, after Russia (14 - 12 as Soviet Union, 2 as Russia), Italy (6) and Czech Republic (3 as Czechoslovakia).
• Serbia finished on the podium in nine of the last 12 European Championships - two first, one second and six third places.
• Serbia are one of four teams to have reached the quarter-finals in each of the last four editions of the European Championship, alongside Bulgaria, Italy and Russia.
• Serbia were one of three countries to lose only one set in this year's group stage, alongside France and Poland. The last team to claim the European title with a maximum of one lost set was the Netherlands in 1997. Only Yugoslavia avoided a straight-set defeat against Holland that campaign (3-1 loss in the final).
• Serbia can win more than five matches at a single European Championship for the first time since 2011 (6).

Czech Republic
• Czech Republic won the European Championship in 1948, 1955 and 1958 (all as Czechoslovakia), while also finishing on the podium in 1950, 1967, 1971 and 1985 (all runners-up as Czechoslovakia).
• Czech Republic's best result at the European championship since its independence in 1993 is a fourth place in both 1999 and 2001.
• Czech Republic can reach the quarter-finals in successive European Championships. In 2017, they lost their quarter-final match 3-1 against Germany.
• Czech Republic won only two of their five pool matches, a 3-0 win against Estonia and a 3-2 victory against the Netherlands.
• Czech Republic can win more than two matches in a single European Championship for the first time since 2001 (4).
• Jan Hadrava (21) scored second-most aces in this year's group stage, only behind Nimir Abdel-Aziz (24) from the Netherlands.

“Until now we played five amazing matches and I hope to continue like this. Now the team is ready for the second part of the tournament. We know a lot of the players we are going against and we know it will not be easy. We need to give everything to win this match.”

Nikola Jovovic
Setter of Serbia

“We need to play with lot of serving power to force them to play high balls and maybe that is a good way for us to approach this match. We know Serbia is a pretty strong team. We need to be patient, but I can't tell if we have any more surprises for them.”

Michal Finger
Opposite of Czech Republic

The Czech team arrive at the venue

Jovovic (SRB) during the pre-match interview

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