Sweden and Croatia put up some real fight on the last day of action in Pool A of the Qualifier taking place in Zadar. The hosts managed to record a 3-1 victory keeping alive their chances for a ticket to the Finals of #EuroVolleyM. The second and decisive tournament in the group will resume on May 14 with the matches taking place in Apeldoorn. Currently, the Netherlands lead the way, with six points and two victories out of two matches. Croatia follow them with one victory and one lost, while Sweden are yet to record a win.

• On Sunday, Croatia started better in the match vs Sweden and opened in their favour. Not that easy was the situation for the Croatian players in the next set, as their opponents from Sweden started slighlty better and took the lead at 13-7. Croatia's coache Emanuele Zanini reacted with a time out and it worked out as his players got closer in the result. With the score being 17-17, Zhukouski and his teammates were able to turn things around. Leo Andric was shining on the block, scoring a break point at 19-17, and continued with his good performance on the net in the minutes after.
• After two sets, it was the better play on the attack that was helping Croatia to take the lead (by that time, they had recorded 34 winning spikes, while on block and on the serve had the same resulst as Sweden - six blocks and two aces each team. 
• It was a close call in the third set, but Jakob Link with some good performance on the attack helped his Sweden to tie the score. However, Croatia reacted quickly in the last set and with five kill blocks sealed the deal in the match. 
• Leo Andric topped the charts with 30 points to his name, becoming best scorer of the match.

"We had two really bad first sets, we weren't doing the things that we were supposed to. We improved in the third set, showed better skills in defence,  and picked up some new balls. We let some unforced errors affect our game in the last part. We will hope for better achievements next week."

 Edvin SVÄRD, player Sweden

"After losing to the Netherlands, it was really important to win today's game. I think Sweden surprised us and showed some really good game, but we managed to get things under control. We put up a real fight and showed strong character, so everything worked fine for us in the end." 

Ivan RAIC, player Croatia