Italy and France in a Gold Medal rematch for the Men’s U18 crown
Recap
Italy and France are the two teams that will battle it out on Sunday for the crown at the 2024 CEV U18 Volleyball European Championship. The Italians, who are the reigning champions in this age group, and the French will meet for a second consecutive time in the Big Finale in this age group, after doing so back in 2022, when Italy claimed the Gold medals after 3-0.
On the road to the 2024 Final, France had to overcome Spain in the first semifinal of the day at the competition. The players of Jean-Manue Leprovost clinched a 3-0 win.
In the second semifinal battle that took place in Levski Sofia Sports Hall later that day, Italy and Poland delivered a true spectacle, but after a cat-and-mouse game, the Italians stamped their ticket to the Gold medal match after 3-1.
The title-deciding match will take place this Sunday, 21 July, at 17:30 CEST, while Spain and Poland will lock horns for the bronze medals at 14:30 CEST.
France, finished first in Pool I, met the second-placed from Pool II - Spain.
The French team took control over what was happening on the court right after the first referee whistle (13-9). Maintaining their rhythm, Les Blues emerged victorious at 25-20. Spain, on the other hand, suffered from some unforced errors from the serving line.
France started better in the second set as well (4-1), and despite the Spaniards’ attempts to start breathing down their opponents’ necks (15-14), the French squad remained calm and scored breakpoints, taking again their leadership position (20-17) for the final 25-19 in this set.
With no problems in this set either, France were dominating (11-7, 15-12), eventually congratulating themselves with the win after 25-20.
The better performance on the block made the difference for the French team on Saturday, as they finished with 10 points from this element (to four by their rivals). France were also slightly better from the serving line (three to one aces), and seized their chances on their opponents’ errors (21 to 15). The two teams delivered a rather equal performance in attack: 39 to 38 winning spikes.
Noa Duflos-Rossi finished as top scorer for the winning team with 13 pts. (46% exc. in attack), while Cesar Irache Camacho recorded the same number for Spain (31% exc.)
To the delight of the fans in Levski Sofia Sports Hall, the first set set the tone for a very exciting match ahead, as the two teams started following each other in the score (11-11), and exchanged the leadership position various times (14-17 to 22-21 for Italy). The Italians showed mental resilience and opened in their favour at 25-23.
It was a close call in the second set as well (3-3, 10-10). However, it was the Polish team this time around that showed nerves of steel and tied back the score after 25-21.
This motivated the Italians, who quickly responded in the third set, leading at 12-6. The players around head coach Monica Cresta continued with their good performance (21-14) and got closer to the victory after 25-18.
Poland started off better in the next set (5-1), but the Italians turned the tables for 10-7. In the breathtaking last minutes of the set, the two teams gave it all on the Volleyball court, but Italy were the more successful team at 25-23.
Overall, the Italians were the better team in the different Volleyball components - 58 to 47 winning spikes, 13 to 10 kill blocks, four to two aces. However, they were the team that let more own errors affect the score - 30 to 20 by Poland.
Manuel Zlatanov became the top scorer of the match with 20 pts. to his name (39% exc.), while for Poland Oskar Trawka recorded 13 (43% exc.).