VNL 2025: China Overcomes Czechia 3-1 on Home Soil

In the final match of Day 1 during Week 2 Pool 5 in Hong Kong, China defeated Czechia 3-1 (29-27, 23-25, 25-20, 25-22) on their home soil, securing their third win in the tournament. With this result, Czechia’s win-loss record dropped to 2-3. Chinese outside hitter Wu Mengjie was the top scorer of the match, contributing 25 points.

Post-Match Reactions

In a post-match interview, Chinese middle blocker Wang Yuanyuan shared that Czechia caused difficulties for them with their block defense and that the Czech attackers are experienced, which made the match challenging. She also said that playing in Hong Kong feels like home due to the crowd cheering for every point they scored. Wang mentioned that hearing the cheers when they spike and score is the most unforgettable part of the support from the fans.

Czechia’s head coach, Giannis Athanasopoulos, in a post-match interview by our journalist, described the match as very close in the first, second, and fourth sets. He said that China performed better at the end of the sets, and the third set was clear for China. Athanasopoulos said his players gave a great fight, and he is proud of how much they fought. He noted that the result was not what they wanted but said they will move on and try to improve in future games. Regarding the biggest challenge in the match, he said that China’s block defense made it very difficult for them to score, and that China played unbelievable defense. He also mentioned that small mistakes at the end of the first and fourth sets affected their performance.

Czech libero Daniela Digrinova, in an interview by our journalist, said that they enjoyed the atmosphere in the arena and that the crowd was great and the arena was full. She shared that they gave everything they had and played as a team. While they are a little sad about not winning, she felt that they fought very hard. On the biggest challenge against China, Digrinova said that the physicality of China, with their tall spikers and hard spikes, made it difficult for them to defend at times.

Video Interviews of the Matchday

(Reported by Boris CHUNG Bok Man)