Havana, Cuba, June 20, 2009 - "We played better tonight, but we benefited from all the errors Cuba made," said Russian captain Alexey Kazakov after Russia's victory over Cuba in five sets (25-18, 19-25, 21-25, 25-20 and 13-15).

Kazakov: "We played a great game tonight, but we benefited from the huge amount of errors Cuba made. Last night they were better, stronger. Tonight they made too many service errors and that made everything easier for us. The first set was awful, but the game got better later on. Their sides weren't good enough. I understand Sergey Grankin's reaction with the referee, because every player stands up for his rights. But the ref was wrong. On the other hand, the Cuban crowd is tough but fun. Ciudad Deportiva Coliseum becomes a party every night."

Cuban captain Roberlandy Simon: "Tonight we were weaker than yesterday. We didn't push them hard enough at the end of the sets. We have to work it out. Anyway, I'd like to thank our fans for their incredible support. We won't let them down, and we will fight to get into the Final Round."

Russia head coach Daniele Bagnoli: "Last night I asked everyone on the team for a reaction after yesterday's loss. We got into the game really fast tonight. Still we made several mistakes, but managed to solve them. We have to learn a lot from Cuba in counterattacks. My players will watch the video of this game many times. A five-set match gives us a lot of material to analyze. Cuba has to play carefully against Japan. Cuba has a chance to play well overseas, but they have to work on their errors in order to improve their game."

Cuba head coach Orlando Samuells: "Congratulation to Russia for this victory. Our timing was wrong tonight. Sometimes we lack stability. Our serve was not good enough, but still we got to the tie-break. Anyhow, I think anyone could have won tonight. We have to work on the setter's choices. We focused too much on lateral attacks, and we need to diversify our offense."