Nikola Grbic is firmly on the ground. He noticed this before the European Championships.

The Polish national volleyball team holds the last sparring before the European Championship. In Lodz, in front of a large audience, the wards of Nikola Grbic won against Ukraine with a score of 3:2. While the 2023 Nations League winners seemed to have the upper hand in the match, opponents from across the eastern border seized the chance in the final sets, managing to keep their cool and bring the game to a tiebreak.

Mateusz Poręba absent, but… present

The last time preparing for the European Championships is to freshen up after intensive training. The fact that the Poles felt the heaviness of the exercises in their legs is evidenced, in particular, by the disposition during the Hubert Jerzy Wagner Memorial. In the match against Ukraine, it was easier in this regard. In addition, they already knew perfectly well who would fly to North Macedonia for the tournament. In the end, all fifteen people who have been training with each other in recent days will go there. Officially, Mateus Poręba will not be in the squad for the match, but he will still train with the players. Nikola Grbic stressed the need to have an extra midfielder in training.

– The chance I was waiting for is confirmation that Mateusz will fly with us. We have five excellent hosts of the same quality. Of any of them I could not say that nothing will help us. I decided to follow the same formula as in Gdansk (during the final of the League of Nations - approx. MW). The reason is simple - the role of midfielders on the field is less intense than that of other players. I have three of them, so they can be rotated, for example, in the case of daily meetings, said Grbic.

“In training, when they have to spin in threes, it can be difficult. For this reason, we are taking Mateusz with us to help the team during training and to replace other mid-level players. Of course, these are additional costs. You will have to pay for the room, air tickets and other things. I waited for confirmation and when we arrived at the hall, I received it. Another thing is that if something happens to someone during the championship, we have the opportunity to replace one player for health reasons throughout the tournament, even before the final, - the coach added, saying that he had no idea how he would behave feel next year. when he has to choose twelve volleyball players for the Olympics.

Captain Bartosz Kurek ready for action

In recent weeks, fans have been concerned about the health of Bartosz Kurek. After the loss of Mateusz Benek, whose health problems ended a representative 2023 season, the absence of the captain will be an additional blow. Nikola Grbic reassures fans on this issue. Serb drew attention to the fact that the striker entered the training with the team on an individual basis. It took him several days to be able to jump normally. The coach knows that with one player in this position it can be difficult for him. Therefore, he counts on a good location not only for Kurek, but also for Lukas Kaczmarek.

– Bartek Kurek is recovering. He started training a little later than the others, because he could not jump. He can do it in a week. We need two healthy forwards because the European Championship is a long tournament. It won’t be that we play them only with Bartek, and Zverzu (Lukasz Kaczmarek - MW note) won’t do anything. Both need to be ready, for example, in a situation where a double shift is required or when the other is out of shape in a meeting, Grbic said.

Nikola Grbic keeps calm

The Czechs, the Dutch, the Macedonians, the Montenegrins and the Danes will compete in Group C of the Poles at Eurowall 2023. Theoretically, only the team of Roberto Piazza is among those with whom the Poles can have a greater challenge, although not so much that they tremble in defeat. An exit from the first place is necessary in order to meet theoretically weaker opponents later in the tournament. However, Grbic believes that the opponents in the matches with Poland are in a comfortable situation. They don’t have to, but at best they can beat the whites and the reds. The Serbian has a well-analyzed ladder and knows roughly who his team can face after leaving the group.

“The positive effect of winning the VNL is that everyone on the team is ready to play and can replace another player. The negative is that after winning the cup, everyone is now wondering: “Who will win the silver in Rome?” Because it is already assumed that we will win. This is a very dangerous situation. If everything goes according to plan and we take first place in the group, then we will play against Germany in the 1/8 finals. And the last three matches with them ended with the score 3:2. If we defeat them, they will still be waiting for the Serbs. They beat us 3-0 in the Nations League and now they have Atanasjevic, Podraschanin and Kovacevic. Again - if everything goes well, we continue our way to Slovenia. And you saw what happened a few days ago.

(Grbic snaps his fingers - approx. MW)

“It doesn’t look like we’re going to be all right. Perhaps we will fly out of the tournament already with Germany. I don’t want it to sound like I don’t appreciate our team. I want to say that everyone will play the best volleyball against us, because only such volleyball in its performance is able to beat us. If they lose the match, what then? “Oh, you lost to Poland. These players are amazing.” Nobody will care much about it. But if they beat us, they will suddenly become the best in the world. They won’t lose in any situation. For them, it’s a win-win situation. On the other hand, we must be very well mentally prepared to meet opponents who have nothing to lose. We saw an example in the match against Ukraine. We drove almost all the time. Suddenly, the opponents made up for lost time, serving in full force. Regardless of who you’re playing against, if you lower your focus, your aggressiveness, or your level of play, you’ll give your opponents a chance to come back.”

Poland will play the Czech Republic at the start of the 2023 European Championship.

Polish volleyball players got a day off. After that, they will gather again to go to North Macedonia. The first match of the championship will take place on August 31 at 20:00. The White-Reds will face the Czechs, the quarter-finalists of the previous tournament.