09-OCTOBER-2013
WORLD CHAMP. 2014: NATIONAL TEAM
MOTIVATED WITH GREAT CHALLENGE

Hugo Silva faces the National Team participation in the 2014 World Championship Qualifying Pool J as a “great and motivational challenge”.

Portugal met today its opponents with whom it will play for a World Championship Final Round spot. Pool J is to take place at Nis, Serbia, from January 3-5. The pool winner advances for the Final Round to be held at Poland on September 2014.

“In a first analysis, we can say that this pool was the least expected, because Serbia is the world’s higher ranked top seed, besides having won the 2011 European Championship and achieved a 3rd place at the 2010 World Championship, which says much about their strength”, stated the National Team Head Coach, who added:
“This fact will not disturb our goals but will enhance our participation, as we’re facing this as a great challenge. We need also to remind that Slovenia was able to edge Serbia (3-2) at the last European Championship, besides being a team that we’ve encountered a few times over the last years”.

2014 World Championship Qualifying Pools
Pool I (Opava, Czech Rep.): Bulgaria, Czech Republic, The Netherlands and Cyprus
Pool J (Nis, Serbia): Serbia, Portugal, Slovenia and Macedonia
Pool K (Ludwigsburg, Germany): Germany, Turkey, Estonia and Croatia
Pool L (Nantes, France): France, Spain, Belgium and Belarus
Pool M (Poprad, Slovakia): Finland, Slovakia, Greece and Ukraine

The pool winners and the best 2nn ranked team will advance to the final round, to take place at Poland from September 3-21.

More info: www.cev.lu