Dutch fly high in the first day in Espinho

Fielding four Olympians in their squad, the Netherlands had a very productive first day in the men’s tournament of the 2025 CEV Beach Volley Nations Cup Finals, getting four wins on Thursday in Espinho.

Besides the Dutch, Norway also went undefeated at the Praia da Baía on Thursday, with teams from the Scandinavian country winning their first two encounters in the event. Pool play will be completed on Friday in Portugal, with the elimination rounds following over the weekend – the quarterfinals will be on Saturday and the semifinals and the gold medal match are scheduled for Sunday.

Introduced in the European beach volleyball calendar in 2022, the Beach Nations Cup is an exciting ‘country vs country’ competition which resembles the Davis Cup in tennis.

Pool A had four duels completed on Thursday and the Netherlands were the only country to go undefeated in them. The Dutch faced Lithuania first and came out with a pair of wins after Alexander Brouwer and Steven van de Velde topped Robert Juchnevic/Artur Vasiljev 2-1 (25-27, 21-10, 17-15) and Stefan Boermans and Yorick de Groot swept (21-17, 21-15) Arnas Rumsevicius/Karolis Palubinskas.

A few hours later, the Netherlands were faced with Spain and again emerged victorious, this time without dropping sets – Brouwer and van de Velde defeated Álvaro Vieira/Antonio Saucedo in straight sets (21-12, 25-23), while Boermans and Groot overcame Alejandro Huerta/Javier Huerta also in two sets (21-14, 23-21).

CEV Beach Nations Cup Finals – Men

Before falling to the Dutch, the Spanish team claimed a big victory in Espinho, taking down defending champions France. Vieira and Saucedo earned the first win for the Spanish, beating Kéran Duval/Calvin Aye in two sets (21-18, 27-25), and the Huerta brothers followed up with it by downing Téo Rotar and Arnaud Gauthier-Rat in the tie-breaker (21-19, 17-21, 16-14).

Later, France faced Lithuania and the countries split wins, with Juchnevic and Artur Vasiljev beating Duval and Aye in two sets (21-19, 21-15) to get the Lithuanians ahead and Rotar and Gauthier-Rat fighting back for the French with a two-set (21-12, 21-14) victory over Rumsevicius and Palubinskas.

Norway overcome Austria in Pool B

In Pool B, only two duels were held in Espinho on Thursday and Norway were the only country to end the day without a defeat after prevailing over Austria. The Beach Volley Vikings team had Hendrik Mol and Mathias Berntsen beating Julian Hörl and Philipp Waller 2-1 (19-21, 21-18, 15-10) in the first match and superstars Anders Mol and Christian Sørum sweeping (21-12, 21-14) Tim Berger and Timo Hammarberg.

The other encounter ended even, with hosts Portugal and Denmark getting one victory each. The Danish were the first ones to celebrate, with Nicolai Hovmann and Christian Andersen beating brothers Gonçalo and Tomas Sousa in straight sets (21-10, 21-16), but then Hugo Campos and João Pedrosa leveled things for the home team, defeating Mads Møllgaard/Kristoffer Abell in the tie-breaker (17-21, 21-11, 15-9).