Croatia celebrated its qualification to the semi-finals of the World Junior Championship as after an exciting match against Ukraine it won 2-0 in sets.

Croatia made a better start in the first set and managed to take a 4-point lead. But then Ukraine managed to balance the score and get closer. In the end, however, the Croats were more composed and thus they managed to win the first set 17-14.
In the second set, both teams were tied on the scoreboard throughout, and as a result, the interest remained undiminished until the last seconds. Both teams made a few errors, but it was Croatia who managed to get the win in the end and qualify for the semi-finals of the event. Ukraine will now fight for places 5-8.

 CROATIA - UKRAINE 2-0 (17-14, 19-18)

Croatia: Konforta 10, Filipovic, Cvetitsianin 1, Botic, Tomic 14, Fábek, Glavedecic 11, Bubalo, Jurasovic, Kranisevic.
Ukraine: Protsyuk 14 , Krasiun 2, Podborsky 14, Blakhodir 2, Khochachatsko, Ilyin, Pisarevsky, Saibakov, Kushniruk, Savitsky

Referees: Gomer J.-Gomer M. Suspensions: 1-2

Quotes:

Fran Cveticjanin (Croatian player): it was quite early in the morning for us and that was quite difficult for us to wake up so early in the morning and get our bodies ready for the game. In the first set everything went well in defence, attack. The second set was a bit harder as Ukraine also stepped up in terms of play and we dropped a bit in rhythm. But in the end we showed our character again and won. At this stage of the competition all opponents are good and all have the potential to win."

Andrii Hochachko (Ukrainian player) "To reach the quarter-finals of the competition is a good result. We definitely wanted more and to advance to the next stage. We made some mistakes today on defense and offense and in the end we lost the win."