Familiar faces to meet at the CEV EuroVolley 2026 Women, after exciting drawing of lots
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In a lavish setting – the Castello Normanno-Svevo in Bari – the 24 participating teams at the CEV EuroVolley 2026 Women, the 34th edition of the European premium competition, found out their opponents, in the preliminary round opening a path towards the trophy.
It proved to be a Drawing of Lots which provided some mouthwatering clashes, with some exciting matches already on the cards in the preliminary round.
Türkiye, Czechia, Azerbaijan, and Sweden, the four hosts, had the prerogative to choose one opponent and assign them to their pools, with Türkiye choosing to play against Latvia, Austria being sent in Pool B to face Czechia, Portugal meeting Azerbaijan in Pool C, while Sweden decided to play against Montenegro in Pool D.
Pool A will see a rematch of the one of the quarter-finals of the previous edition, as co-hosts Türkiye will face Poland in a highlight match of the preliminary round in Istanbul. Another rematch from 2023 will be the battle between Poland and Germany, with Poland taking a 3:0 win against Germany in the Round of 16. Slovenia and Hungary completed Pool A at the Drawing of Lots.
In Pool B, which will be played in Brno, the runners-up of the CEV EuroVolley Women 2023, Serbia, joined Czechia, Austria, Ukraine, Bulgaria and Greece, being clear favourites to secure the first place and be back in the contention for the trophy, as the co-hosts also aim to rekindle their fantastic 2023 edition, where they lost in the quarter-finals against Serbia, 1:3.
Bronze medallists in the 2023 edition, the Netherlands will play in Pool C, alongside Azerbaijan, Portugal, Belgium, Romania and Spain. Netherlands, which lost a single match in the previous edition and dropped only four sets, will be surely aiming to win their pool again, but will face some stiff competition from their opponents.
Reigning world and Olympic champions, Italy, which have not lost a single match for more than a year, were sent to Pool D, where they are due to face co-hosts Sweden, Montenegro, France, Slovakia and Croatia.
Italy have already eliminated France in the previous edition of the competition, with a dominating 3:0 win in the quarter-finals, and will be looking to build on their recent form, which brought two gold medals in the last two major international competitions, after finishing fourth at the CEV EuroVolley 2023 Women.
The top four teams in each pool will progress to the Round of 16, while the last two teams – eight in total – are eliminated and will head home.
CEV EuroVolley 2026 - Drawing of lots
Pool A: Türkiye, Latvia, Poland, Germany, Slovenia, Hungary
Pool B: Czechia, Austria, Serbia, Ukraine, Bulgaria, Greece
Pool C: Azerbaijan, Portugal, Netherlands, Belgium, Romania, Spain
Pool D: Sweden, Montenegro, Italy, France, Slovakia, Croatia