Henno and Faure propel France to first #EuroVolleyM gold medal match since 2015
News
On Saturday, France will return to contest a #EuroVolleyM gold medal match for the first time since their victorious run in 2015 following their 3-1 victory over Finland in the semi-finals. France had previously lost both their semi-finals in 2019 and 2023 – but this time Théo Faure, Mathis Henno and their teammates made no mistake as they ended Finland’s fairy tale in the tournament. With this result, France’s head coach Andrea Giani will contest a third #EuroVolleyM final with a third different team – he had previously achieved this feat with Slovenia and Germany in 2015 and 2017, respectively. France will play reigning European champions Poland for gold and a ticket to the Los Angeles 2028 Olympic Games. On the other hand, Finland remain in contention for their first ever #EuroVolleyM medal – they will vie for it in Saturday’s bronze medal match with Slovenia.
Finland vs. France 1-3 (17-25, 25-18, 18-25, 15-25)
A highly rejuvenated French national team with only a few members remaining from the Olympic gold-medal winning roster was due to take on the real sensation of the competition – Team Finland, who had shocked the Volleyball community earlier in the week by edging reigning World champions Italy in Torino. After a very cagey affair, France eventually found a way to control Finland’s side-out, edging ahead at 14-11 and 17-12, with Théo Faure and Mathis Henno scoring six points apiece as Les Bleus confidently and comfortably cruised to a compelling 25-17 win propelled by three blocks and just as many aces.
Finland trailed 1-3 early in the second set before drawing level at 4-4 all. Finland seemed to settle more and more as the match progressed, prompting a timeout by France’s legendary coach Andrea Giani when the score stood at 13-10 in favour of the Finns. Giani requested a second such break after an ace moved the figures to 16-12, much to the delight of the many fans that had travelled from Finland to Milano to witness such a historic moment for their country’s Volleyball community and sports movement at large. Playing with energy and carried by the enthusiasm of their supporters, the ‘Valjekset’ added another chapter to their stellar EuroVolley campaign by securing the set 25-18 with an impressive spike by their star player Luka Marttila on the back of seven points scored by Joonas Jokela.
The course of the match changed again in the early stages of the third set with France storming out to a massive 13-5 advantage, much courtesy of a superb serving game. Finland scored four times in a row after Veikka Lindqvist replaced Jokela but that attempt at mounting a comeback was rather short lived since France regrouped quickly with an almost unstoppable Faure (10 points) playing a pivotal role towards a 25-18 win.
Finland put up much more of a fight at the start of the fourth set but a series of mighty blocks moved the score to 9-6 for France. This was a setback that Finland could no longer recover from. France finished also the most closely contested and longest rallies in their favour (15-9) under the watchful eye of their head coach and deservedly won the match in four sets (25-15).
Mathis Henno and Théo Faure top scored in the end with 21 and 20 points, respectively. Nooa Marttila and Joonas Jokela registered the most points for Finland with 13 and 12.
Mathis Henno“I am so happy and I absolutely have no words right now to describe the way I feel. Reaching the final was our goal for this competition and I am incredibly happy, proud and satisfied. We have very little time to recover both mentally and physically. We go straight back to the hotel, will try to sleep and refocus for tomorrow’s big final.”
Player of France
Théo Faure“In the second set they played good, we knew what they did with Italy so we were also very good at coming back in the right way. I see the team is growing match after match and with Poland it will be another tough match: what we have to do is to stay focused on each point.”
Player of France
Andrea Giani“To reach the final was our first goal of this EuroVolley. We expected they would play much better in the second set, but then we brought back to the court our style of play and that was the key. Now we have one night to reset everything and find the right energy for the final.”
Head coach of France
Joonas Jokela“Our attacks were not as good as we expected after the second set, we did not keep the momentum going and they came back. This night we have to recover from this loss and tomorrow it is going to be our last match so we have to find all our energy and bring it to the court.”
Player of Finland