STAG 2017 European Youth Championships
Top seeded in Junior Boys Team’s Event team of France lost the match against England no. two seeds in the group in the second round of the 60th STAG European Youth Championships in Guimaraes. Already in the opening stage they faced tough encounter against Poland but they managed to prevail.
Artur GRELA gave Poland dream start with the victory over Irvin BERTRAND but the last year’s quarterfinalists were back on track after victory of Jules ROLLAND against Kamil NALEPA in five games thriller. Bastien REMBERT had much easier job against Jan ZANDECKI whilst Irvin secured the victory after 3:0 against NALEPA.
“It is a great challenge to open the first match at the tournament. Poland had a better start but eventually we settled into the rhythm. I was not at the top of my game against GRELA but it was much easer after ” said BERTRAND.
In the same Group England beat Slovenia 3:1 before they scored against France in the full five match. Tom JARVIS was the backbone of England’s success with the wins over Jules ROLLAND and Irvin BERTRAND. Luke SAVILL recorded the victory in the decisive match but previously he lost against BERTRAND. Bastien REMBERT overcame Matthew LEETE.
No. two seeds Romania overcame Denmark in straight games. Cristian PLETEA started with the win over Martin ANDERSEN and Dragos Florin OPREA sealed the match with the victory over Rasmus MIKKELSEN. In between Rares SIPOS was under severe pressure against Andreas DILLING. He was stretched to full distance.
“There will be no easy matches here. Denmark proves it at the very beginning. Although they are seeded at the position no. ten they put us under pressure. Andreas DILLING proved he is very dangerous player ” said PLETEA.
They repeated the result in the next duel against Denmark. Serbia suffered straight match defeat against Czech Republic before they beat Denmark in full five matches.
In Group C top seeds Russia overcame Spain whilst Germany prevailed against Turkey. Russia also beat Germany but in much closer encounter – 2:3. Denis IVONIN beat Tobias HIPPLER and Gerrit ENGEMANN in the opening and decisive matches. ENGEMANN prevailed against Artur ABUSEV whilst Cedric MEISSNER lost against Lev KATSMAN. Tobias HIPPLER also beat ABUSEV
In Group D thanks to brilliant performance of Ioannis SGOUROPOULOS Greece was close to create the upset against Italy. Matteo MUTTI beat Georgios STAMATOUROS before Daniele PINTO suffered against SGOUROPOULOS by same margin 3:1. Antonino AMATO gave Italy once again the lead by beating Efstratios DAMIANIS but SGOUROPOULOS brought Greece back in game with victory over Matteo MUTTI.
Daniele PINTO won the decisive game against STAMATOUROS secure the victory.
“It was not problem to me to play the decisive match. I love that kind of situations. At that point we are leveled there are no favorites. Like the game has just started ” said PINTO.”I lost against SGOUROPOULOS but I am not unhappy with my game. I played well.”
They continued in the same pace and beat top seeded Belgium. Florian CNUDDE overcame PINTO to give favorites good start but Matteo MUTTI leveled the match with the victory over Valentin PIERAERT. Antonino AMATO succeeded against Laurens DEVOS and MUTTI overcame CNUDDE. It secured the top spot for Italy before today’s encounter against Slovakia.
Top seeds in Group D Belgium beat Slovakia the team who also suffered against Greece.
