Portugal celebrate first EuroVolley win

Portugal celebrated their first victory at CEV Trendyol EuroVolley 2026. In Wednesday’s opening Pool C match in Baku, they came back from a set down to beat Spain in four and stay well in contention for the fourth place, which guarantees a ticket to the eighthfinals. Although still winless, Spain also saved small mathematical chances to earn that ticket.

Pool C: Spain v Portugal 1-3 (26-24, 23-25, 19-25, 20-25)

Spain took an early 8-3 lead and even extended it to 17-11 before Portugal started mounting their comeback and finally caught up at 23-23. Portugal denied Spain’s first set point to prompt overtime, but on the second, they sent the ball out of bounds to let the opponent win the set by 26-24.

The second set was almost a mirror image of the first. Portugal stepped up their performance in serving and blocking to stay in control, opening a gap as wide as eight points, but after 20-12, Spain attempted a comeback, which stopped just short of succeeding. They denied the triple set point Portugal had at 24-21 twice before spiking the ball out of bounds to hand Portugal a 25-23 set win.

The third set went back and forth until 13-11 Spain’s way, when Portugal, having greatly reduced the number of unforced errors, ran off with an 8-1 run and never looked back. Outside hitter Ana Monteiro, who was not among the match starters, but joined the main seven on the court for the second set, led the Portuguese team towards a convincing 25-19 close, which she personally shaped up with a successful swing for the set winner.

With Monteiro continuing to spearhead the Portuguese attack, while the team greatly improved its blocking performance, especially with middle Amanda Cavalcanti raising three of their six stuffs in the fourth set, Portugal continued to dominate throughout the set. Spain tried fighting back and even caught up momentarily in the score at 16-16, but it was too late to stop an inspired Portugal. Monteiro brought in match point with a spike kill for 24-19, and Cavalcanti converted it to a 25-20 win with a speedy attack through the middle.

Ana Monteiro and opposite Julia Kavalenka led Portugal with 19 points apiece, while the other outside – Alice Clemente – finished with 13. Her Spanish counterpart Ana Escamilla emerged as the best scorer of the match with 22 points to her name. Opposite Julia De Paula Viana put away another 15. 

Pool C: Belgium v Azerbaijan 18:30 local time

More information coming up here after the match…

Thursday’s seventh competition day in Pool C will feature the Netherlands against Belgium at 15:30 local time, and Portugal against Romania at 18:30.