Four teams eye title in the Final Four of the 2024 CEV Volleyball European Golden League Men

The top four teams in the 2024 CEV Volleyball European Golden League Men will take the court two times this weekend in the Gradski vrt Hall in Osijek, Croatia, with the big prize on display, as hosts Croatia, Estonia, Ukraine and Czechia are the last teams standing in the competition.

The Final Four of the 2024 CEV Volleyball European Golden League will be played over two days, with the semi-finals opposing Croatia and Estonia on one side and Czechia and Ukraine on the other side, being scheduled for Saturday, 15 June, while the bronze medal match and the big final played on day later, on Sunday, 16 June.

Hosts Croatia are the only unbeaten side in the competition after the league round, with six wins in six matches and only six sets dropped on their way to the first place in the standings. 

Croatia will rely once again on opposite Petar Đirlić, who changed sides this summer from Volley Milano to Cucine Lube Civitanova, who is the third top scorer with 123 points, 15 less than the top scorer of the competition this season, North Macedonia’s Nikola Gjorgjiev.

With the home advantage behind them, Croatia will be favoured against Estonia, which secured their place in the Final Four in the final week of the league round, securing straight sets wins against Azerbaijan and Luxembourg.

Estonia had four wins and two losses in the league round, with 13 sets won and nine lost, having conceded so far losses against Finland (1-3) and Czechia (0-3), which does not bode necessarily well for their chances, but they will aim to create a surprise against the hosts.

Estonia made the Final Four in this format of the competition for the second side, after securing the third place in 2021, while Croatia aim to break the curse of conceding losses in the CEV Volleyball European Golden League semi-finals, having lost the semi-final both in 2022 and in 2023, when they also hosted the Final Four.

The other semi-final will pit Ukraine and Czechia, two sides which have already met in the league round in week 2, on 25 May, when Czechia took a 3:1 win, bouncing back after conceding the second set, 23:25.

A 25:15 win in the third set and a 25:22 win in the fourth set saw Czechia taking the win, as opposites Patrick Indra and Lukas Vasina combined for 41 of Czechia’s 98 points. This time around, Ukraine, which won four matches and dropped two, will aim to reverse their fortunes.

Yet Czechia are the favourites, after having lost a single match in the league round, 2:3 against Finland, in Week 3, as opposite Patrik Indra is due to have some more excellent matches, after scoring 122 points, the fourth largest number so far in the league round.

Czechia have also won the 2022 edition of the competition, while Ukraine have the most consistent record in the last three years, with two silver medals, in 2021 and 2023, and a fourth place in 2022.