European Championship-2023. Women
Group A. Second round. August 19
Ghent (Flanders Sports Arena). Belgium
Ukraine — Hungary 3-0 (25:17, 26:24, 25:17)
Ivan Petkov's wards won their debut victory at the European Championship 2023. It happened in the match of the second round against Hungary.
A priori, there cannot be weak teams in the championship of the continent. Therefore, despite the total superiority in the previous meetings, the blue-yellow team did not expect an easy walk today.
The Hungarians demonstrated their intention to impose a struggle on our ladies already at the start of the meeting — 4:5. But their own mistakes, in particular, Annette Nemeth in the attack allowed the Ukrainians to seize the initiative - 8:6. It is worth noting that the coaches of both teams took time-outs in a timely manner, which directly affected the course of events on the court. In the end, Ivan Petkov won this duel - 25:17.
Alessandro Chiappini's wards started the second set quite defiantly. They noticeably added on the block and soon broke away in the score — 1:6. Thanks to the efforts of Anastasiia Kraiduba, we finally managed to "move further". After that, Petkov's team began to steadily score points and soon equalized parity - 15:15. In the end, our team once again got themselves into a difficult situation (19:22), but they came out of it with their heads held high - 26:24.
In the next set, both sides were playing equally for some time - 5:5. In those moments, Agnes Bosco often assisted the leader of attacks, Anette Nemeth, but the latter was not distinguished by stability. In addition, the representatives of Hungary acted recklessly even without the ball. For example, Ukraine received a point after a service error from the opponent. This moment, by the way, became one of the significant ones in the third set — 25:17.
Starting line-up of Ukraine: Sharhorodska, Dorsman (c), Meliushkina, Milenko, Kodola, Kraiduba, Niemtseva (l).
Starting line-up of Hungary: Ester Naksa-Pekárik, Andrea Pinter, Agnes Bosco, Greta Kiss, Kata Tórek, Anette Nemeth, Fruzyna Toth (l, c).
