Cuba defeats Portugal in FIVB Men's Volleyball World League

HAVANA, Cuba, Jul 4 (acn) Cuba beat Portugal in the last day of the FIVB Men's Volleyball World League Group 2 Pool I, based in the city of Tampere, Finland.

With general negative balance of three wins and six losses, Cubans defeated Portuguese 3-0 (25-19, 22-25, 25-19, 20-25, 15-9), with highlights for Dariel Albo, who scored 32 points, 29 spikes and three aces.
Javier Jimenez (14) also excelled for Cuba -which could not reach the finals of the group- whereas Alexandre Ferreira (17) and Hugo Gaspar (14) stood out for the European squad.
Match statistics show the Caribbean side dominated in the attack, 62-47, blocking, 13-10 and service, 5-4 although Europeans had better result regarding unforced errors (27-36).
Portugal has its presence already secured to the finals of this second level due to its status as headquarters, accompanied by the top three ranked teams in the standings.
When there are still some matches left, Canada with 23 points, eight wins and no loss, leads the standings, followed by Turkey (21-7-1), Netherlands (19-6-3), Finland (16-5-3), Czech Republic (13-5-4), China (12-4-5), Egypt (11-4-5), Slovakia (10-3-6), Cuba (9-3-6), South Korea (9-3-6), Japan (9-2-7) and Portugal (7-2-7).
Seoul, South Korea, welcomes Pool G2 which includes the squads of Czech Republic, the Netherlands, Egypt and the local side, while, Xuancheng, China, hosts Pool H2 with the teams from Turkey, Slovakia, Japan and the host squad.