European Championships | 26 Sep 2014

Sweden Women’s team beat the odds

In the semifinal of the Women’s Teams Event at the TMS European Championships Poland will meet Austria, whilst Germany will play against Sweden. Poland secured their medal after superior performance against Belarus. In straight matches Natalia PARTYKA, Ka

In the semifinal of the Women’s Teams Event at the TMS European Championships Poland will meet Austria, whilst Germany will play against Sweden.

Poland secured their medal after superior performance against Belarus. In straight matches Natalia PARTYKA, Katarzyna GRZYBOWSKA and LI Qian overcame Viktoria PAVLOVICH, Alexandra PRIVALOVA and Alena DUBKOVA. Like on his premiere as a Poland’s head coach in 2009, Mihal DZIUBANSKI led his team to another medal rostrum.

“I have very strong team and girls are playing better and better as the Championships goes by. I did not want to give any predictions; we are just following our dream,” said DZIUBANSKI.

Poland will meet Austria. Unlike their adversaries, Austrian players never won the medal at the European Championships. “It never happened before. We were under severe pressure before the match against Hungary. I was shaking; it was very hard to stay focused,” explained LIU Jia.

LIU overcame both, Dora MADARASZ and Georgina POTA, Amelie SOLJA beat Szandra PERGEL, whilst Sofia POLCANOVA lost her duel against POTA. “Now it is easier. We have SOLJA and POLCANOVA in the team and our coach has much more opportunities. It gives us space for more tactical variations. “

About the duel against Poland, LI said: ”They have young but enough experienced team. They play together for a while. Especially it will be hard to stop LI Qian.”

Germany overcame Netherlands. SHAN Xiaona, HAN Ying and Irene IVANCAN beat LI Jie, Britt EERLAND and Yana TIMINA in straight matches. “We were worried about the Dutch line up, but SHAN started this match perfectly, so we were in good position,” explained IVANCAN.

Sweden was delighted after the victory over Romania. “You can smell in the air that Romania won so many medal. They have experience, they know how to do it and you are just aware of that when you play against them. We were not planning to win the medal here. We came to gain some experience, but we seized the opportunity when it occurs” explained coach Andreas JOHANSON.

Matilda EKHOLM was delighted. She beat Elizabeta SAMARA in the opening match and sealed the victory for Sweden after fantastic duel against Bernadette SZOCS. “I have played against SAMARA only once before. I lost against her in 2008. It is incredible hard to play against her. However, today I was fully focused. I was even unaware of the result. I played point for point,” said Matilda.

SZOCS proved her good shape after victory over LI Fen, but LI suffered latter against SAMARA.