Earlier this European Championship in the group stage in Romania, the Orange was also too strong for Sweden, the number 43 in the world ranking, with 3-0 (25-21 25-20 25-13). The Netherlands is in ninth place in the global ranking.
In the semi-final battle, the Orange squad will play against the winner of the game between Italy and Russia in Belgrade on Friday. That game is Wednesday, also in Belgrade.
The Netherlands had a somewhat rough start in Plovdiv. The Orange squad almost constantly faced a deficit in the first set. Only at 19-19 did Selinger’s team take over the initiative. Sweden held on well, but eventually had to leave the set to the Netherlands after a wrong smash by star player Isabelle Haak.
In the second set, the Orange took away from Sweden from 4-4. At a score of 19-14, the Scandinavian formation struggled for a while, but after 19-16 the unleashed Orange did not give up a point.
In the third set, the Netherlands quickly led 5-1, but then the concentration dropped slightly. Sweden came back to 15-15, even led for a while, but just in time the Orange was back on track. Nika Daalderop was the top scorer with 16 points, followed by Juliët Lohuis (11 points) and Elles Dambrink (10 points).
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