Opposite hitter Drazen Luburic was Serbia’s top scorer with 20 points, a total he posted despite not returning to the court after coming off late in the third set. Lazar Marinovic added 16 points and Pavle Peric 15. The trio carried most of the attacking load while the rest of the rotation did the dirty work in defense and at the block.
This was Serbia’s tournament opener after a build-up that left the team without a real dress rehearsal: a match against Bulgaria was called off due to a virus outbreak in that squad, and two odd draws with Slovenia were both stopped at 2-2. Form was always going to have to come together during the tournament itself, and the first half of the Estonia match showed exactly that, a team building its rhythm as it went.
Group C is being played in Tampere and also features Finland, the Netherlands, Denmark and Belgium alongside Serbia and Estonia. The top four teams advance to the knockout stage, which leaves little room for error, though not none. After the opening round, host nation Finland tops the group after beating Denmark without dropping a set, while Serbia and Belgium, who also won 3-1 against the Netherlands, are level on results.
Serbia sits sixth in the CEV rankings and is counted among the six main favorites for this European Championship, which is being co-hosted by Bulgaria, Finland, Italy and Romania. The tournament opened on September 9 with 24 teams, and the final is scheduled for September 26. Of the squad that won Serbia’s last title in 2019, only three players remain: Luburic, Nikola Jovovic and Marko Ivovic, a fair indicator of how much the roster has turned over since.