Great Britain 3 Croatia 1
(24-26 25-18 25-16 25-18)

Great Britain secured a double victory over Croatia to keep up their hopes of reaching the Final Four with a 24-26 25-18 25-16 25-18 win in Edinburgh.

Croatia saved two set points to take the first set but GB took control after that to underline their growing potential.

Croatia started the match impressively and held the upper hand for much of it. Some powerful hitting from Ivan Cosic and Branko Damjanovic put the GB block under pressure.

It was not until Mark Plotyczer wiped a spike off the block that GB managed to get in front 16-15 and a service ace from the Brazilian-raised player stretched the advantage to three points 19-16.

Croatia steadied it after a time-out from Dragan Bozic but some tough serving from Jason Haldane kept GB in front 21-19.

When Ivan Kurtes was long with a hit, it left Croatia three points adrift again (20-23), forcing another time-out.

Croatia came to within a point when Haldane was just too long but Plotyczer brought up the first set point with a hit off the block to make it 24-24.

Croatia saved two set points before Cosic gave Croatia their first set point at 25-24 when he beat the block through the middle.

A big block by Kurrtes on Plotyczer proved enough to take the set 26-24 and complete a superb comeback. 

Croatia led early in the second set 3-1 but a power hit by Haldane down the line and a block from Mark McGivern turned the set 4-3 in Great Britain's favour.

Andrew Pink then took a hand in things with a couple of decent hits, a strong block and a deceptive serve as GB led 8-5 at the technical time-out.

Some slack hitting by Kurtes and then Ivan Tropan pushed the hosts to 11-6 but Damjanovic produced an intelligent hit to prevent the set slipping away from Croatia.

The GB block held together better than in the first set and Andy Benson brought the crowd to life with a huge block to give his side a 15-8 lead. Setter Ben Pipes linked well with Haldane to make it 17-10 and Pipes then made a terrific block to extend the lead to 19-11 as there was no danger of GB letting it slip.

There were some signs of tension at the end of the set as Croatia came back from 23-15 to 23-17 but then Kurtes served into the net.  Joel Miller came on to serve into the net for GB on set point but Cosic then made an identical error to give GB the set 25-18

If GB thought they had turned it around Croatia had other ideas at the start of the third set and led 6-1 after an immense block from Tropan and a power hit down the line from Damjanovic.

Coach Harry Brokking brought on back-up setter Kieran O'Malley and, the British team pulled it back to 5-6 and then 7-7 thanks to a service ace from Haldane. A block from Chris Lamont then put GB in front 8-7 at the time-out.

Croatia managed to draw level after that but were never in front again as GB's main hitting threats of Haldane and Plotyczer continued to pick holes in their defence. A block from Benson took the score to 16-12 at the second technical time-out.

Some strong serving from Plotyczer opened up an eight-point lead 20-12 as GB took full control. Haldane made it 24-14 with a spike down the line but Croatia saved two set points before a serving error handed them the third set 25-16.

Great Britain started solidly in the fourth set and even an impressive pick-up from Croatian libero Josip Fehir with his foot could not prevent Haldane finishing off the rally to give his team a 9-6 lead.

A disputed ace serve from Haldane kept GB in control 15-11 and Damjanovic was then loose with a hit as GB stretched away. Croatia struggled to deal with Plotyczer's tough serving as he took his team to within sight of victory, 22-15.

Cosic served into the net to give GB match point and it was fitting that one of the young players in the squad, Joel Miller supplied the final point.

Brokking had praise for his back-up setter O'Malley but is refusing to look too far into the future and talk about his team's prospects of making the Final Four.

"I was satisfied with the last three sets," said Brokking, "We looked at the video to see where there were hurting us yesterday and we controlled the match hen we controlled their number eight (Damjanovic) and number seven (Kurtes), that was the key to the match.

"You saw for yourself how Kieran O'Malley came in and did well and thatturned the match for us."

Captain Ben Pipes said:"That's the first time we've won back-to-back matches. I don't think we can happy with how we played as individual but as a team we did well with players like Kieran O'Malley and Andy Benson doing a job for us.

"Our coach had warned us that they would come back twice as strong inthe second match and we need to learn as a team. There's satisfaction in the victory but we need to take these teams 3-0."

Croatian captain Ivica Radocaj said: "We did a bit better in the first set than yesterday but we just fell down in the second set and didn't come back later in the game.

"I don't know why that is but maybe we were tired from the last match and we didn't make it. GB killed us with blocks and services."  Coach Dragan Bozic added: "Our reception was better than yesterday but our attack did not play well. But this team has not been together very long and it is no surprise we have ups and downs in matches."