EuroBeachVolley 2025 Previews – Men’s Pools A-D
News
The annual celebration of European beach volleyball is coming up shortly, as next week, between Wednesday and Sunday, the best teams on the continent will be reunited in Düsseldorf, Germany, to compete in the 33rd edition of the CEV EuroBeachVolley.
Returning to Germany for the fourth time in history and getting to a fourth different city in the most successful country in the tournament to date, the event will be held at the popular Rochus Club and should be the most competitive in recent years, with every top team on the continent having confirmed participation.
The 32 men’s teams were split into eight pools of four and will each play twice in the modified pool play system. The eight pool winners will advance directly to the Round of 16, with the 16 teams ranked second and third having to go through the Round of 24 first.
Pool play for the men will take place between Wednesday and Thursday, when the Round of 24 matches will also be held. The Round of 16 will follow on Friday and the quarterfinals on Saturday, with the semifinals and medal matches happening on Sunday.
It should be an exciting week of elite-level beach volleyball in Düsseldorf and, as the first serve nears, let’s take a look at the eight pools in each gender, starting with Pools A, B, C and D for the men’s tournament.
Pool A
Teams: Anders Mol/Christian Sørum (Norway), Hugo Campos/João Pedrosa (Portugal), Benedikt Sagstetter/Jonas Sagstetter (Germany) and Ardis Bedritis/Arturs Rinkevics (Latvia)
One of the main attractions in the tournament, Olympic, world and four-time EuroBeachVolley champions Mol and Sørum are the clear favorites to finish first in the pool and take the direct spot in the Round of 16, but each of their three opponents can be a threat to the Beach Volley Vikings in their own way.
Campos and Pedrosa have established themselves as the top Portuguese team competing internationally and have a big win to show for, having triumphed at the Beach Pro Tour Edmonton Challenge in 2023, but haven’t been the most consistent after that. Set to make their EuroBeachVolley debut, the Sagstetter brothers had a big result at this year’s Ostrava Elite event, ranking fifth, and are still proving themselves among the elite, but will be at home and can be dangerous. Bedritis and Rinkevics are also set to compete in the EuroBeachVolley for the first time, but have been partners since 2021 and, with nothing to lose in a competitive pool, could be able to bring their best game and challenge their opponents.
While it’s difficult to see a scenario in which Mol and Sørum don’t rank first in Pool A, the other three spots are up for grabs and the opening-day match between the Portuguese and the Germans could prove critical in how things unfold in the pool.
Pool B
Teams: David Åhman/Jonatan Hellvig (Sweden), Rémi Bassereau/Calvin Aye (France), Alexander Brouwer/Steven van de Velde (the Netherlands) and Samuele Cottafava/Enrico Rossi (Italy)
The drawing of lots didn't do any favors to reigning Olympic champions Åhman and Hellvig, who will start their journey to try to return to the top of the podium after their victories in 2022 and 2023 in a pool that features five other Olympians and players with solid international experience.
Bássereau and Aye started their partnership at last year’s EuroBeachVolley, ranking 17th, and have consistently been in the top ten of Challenge events this year. Brouwer and van de Velde joined forces this season, but have both made it to the podium at the EuroBeachVolley with different partners in the past and have the experience and the quality to compete for medals in Düsseldorf. Cottafava and Rossi will play together for the first time in Germany and, despite not having the same chemistry as partners as their opponents, have what it takes to beat anyone on a good day.
All four matches in this pool should be really exciting, and, even though Åhman and Hellvig are the favorites to end up at the top of the standings, it’s not impossible to see them falling to any of their three opponents, which makes this pool very difficult to predict.
Pool C
Teams: Martins Plavins/Kristians Fokerots (Latvia), Téo Rotar/Arnaud Gauthier-Rat (France), Philipp Huster/Maximilian Just (Germany) and Jakub Sepka/Jiri Sedlak (Czechia)
Plavins and Fokerots were the sensations of last year’s EuroBeachVolley, stunning the favorites to become just the second Latvian team to win gold in the event. They haven’t repeated that success since then, but with Plavins’ experience and Fokerots’ consistent improvement, they could be set for another big performance in Düsseldorf.
Rotar and Gauthier-Rat helped France win the CEV Beach Nations Cup last year and became partners after that, getting solid results on the Beach Pro Tour. Huster and Just also joined forces during the 2024 season and had a promising start, ranking fourth in their second tournament together, the Haikou Challenge, but haven’t been able to replicate that performance yet. Sepka and Sedlak haven’t made much success beyond the Futures level on the Beach Pro Tour, but were among the sensations of the last EuroBeachVolley, ranking fifth, and could be ready for another strong run next week.
Latvians and the French are the best two teams in the pool and should have no trouble making it to the next round, but it’s hard to say who’s going to be first and second. Germans and Czechs could upset either of them and change the scenario in the pool, but they will most likely compete for the third spot in the elimination rounds.
Pool D
Teams: Hendrik Mol/Mathias Berntsen (Norway), Matthew Immers/Ruben Penninga (the Netherlands), Sergiy Popov/Eduard Reznik (Ukraine) and Adrian Heidrich/Jonathan Jordan (Switzerland)
Mol and Berntsen have been displaying consistent progress at the international level over the last several years and are fresh from helping Norway win gold at the CEV Beach Nations Cup, but they will need to perform well to rank first in the pool as expected.
A Paris Olympian and a EuroBeachVolley medalist, Immers is one of the top defenders in Europe and the first months of his new team with Penninga have been promising. Popov and Reznik gave Ukraine its first EuroBeachVolley medal in 2023, when they took bronze, and haven’t been able to repeat that level of success since, but their efficient combination of a big, physical blocker and a skilled, intelligent defender makes them very difficult to score at. Heidrich, a Tokyo Olympian, has been able to reignite his career this season with Jordan, and the two will have a great opportunity to build on their success at the Futures level and achieve bigger goals.
The Norwegians have what it takes to beat the Swiss and make it to the next round, but the outcome of the second duel, involving the Dutch and the Ukrainians, is far less predictable and could impact the entire pool.