Denmark and France advance to the Finals

Danish men and French women joined the list of national teams qualified for the 2025 CEV Beach Volley Nations Cup Finals on Wednesday, when they topped their Preliminary Phase pools in the Italian city of Messina.

After the conclusion of the event in Italy, six of the eight spots in the Final Phase, which is going to be held in Espinho from July 17-20, are taken in each gender, with Spain, the Netherlands, Czechia, France and Denmark, on the men’s side, and Spain, Estonia, Germany, the Netherlands and France, among the women, set to join hosts Portugal.

The list of countries represented at this year’s Finals of the Beach Nations Cup, an exciting ‘country vs country’ competition introduced in 2022, which resembles the Davis Cup in tennis, will be completed later this week, with pools held in Riga and Vilnius.

An emerging force in the continent, Denmark caused arguably the biggest upset of the Preliminary Phase so far by winning the men’s event held at the Piazza Duomo, in Messina, where they overcame not one, but two continental powerhouses in Germany and Italy to take the spot in the Finals.

CEV Beach Nations Cup – Men’s Pool E 

The Danish qualified on Tuesday, after they won their duels against both Germans and Italians. The first series started with a defeat, as Kristoffer Abell and Christian Andersen fell to Germans Momme Lorenz and Tilo Rietschel 2-1 (21-18, 18-21, 15-10), but then Mads Møllgaard and Nicolai Hovmann swept (21-17, 21-16) the Sagstetter brothers Benedikt and Jonas to give Denmark the victory.

Their triumph against the Italians followed the same pattern, with Abell and Andersen losing to Samuele Cottafava and Gianluca Dal Corso 2-0 (21-18, 21-17) in the first match, but Møllgaard and Hovmann stepping up to beat Enrico Rossi and Marco Viscovich in two sets (21-16, 21-18) and secure the first place.

Olympians take France to the Finals

In the women’s tournament, experience played a factor, and France, which featured four Olympians in their squad, came out on top and booked their ticket to Espinho.

On Tuesday, the French won both their matches against Belgium, with Lézana Placette and Alexia Richard topping Simone Vervloet and Lente Thant in straight sets (21-11, 21-12) and Clémence Viera and Aline Chamereau beating Inès Piret and Youna Coens in the tie-breaker (21-16, 14-21, 15-11).

The series that would decide the pool winners was set to take place on Wednesday, but Italy could not send their team to the sand after Reka Orsi Toth sustained an ankle injury and forfeited both matches against the French, who then topped the pool.

CEV Beach Nations Cup – Women’s Pool D

The two remaining Preliminary Phase pools will be held this week, with Riga hosting matches between Friday and Saturday and Vilnius having a tournament from Saturday to Sunday.