One European finalist ensured at the World Championship, with crunch quarter-finals set

The 2025 FIVB Men's Volleyball World Championship has reached its quarter-finals phase and there are six European sides in the competition, with two European semi-finalists ensured, as well as one finalist 100% certainly coming from Europe.

After a slow start, Italy bounced back and clinched a 3:0 win over Argentina in the Round of 16 phase and will now face Belgium, an unbeaten side, which made it to the quarter-finals of the World Championship after more than 50 years, in a bid to secure their semi-finals berth.

The defending champions erased their weak start and pummeled through the Round of 16 match against Argentina, as they are aiming to secure their fifth title in history, against a plucky Belgium side, which are undefeated so far.

Czechia also wrote a piece of history and will now face the Islamic Republic of Iran, in a quest to secure their maiden semi-finals berth in the history of the country.

“It’s something incredible! I think we are currently writing Czech volleyball’s history. We can say that dreams come true. We made our pretty hard way to the quarterfinals and we can be really proud of ourselves, but we are not finished yet. There are still more games ahead of us. I think we will continue to show the same performance,” said outside hitter Jan Galabov for Volleyball World.

They will face Iran in the quarter-finals, a team which had its ups and downs, losing against Egypt in the first match of the competition, but in the Round of 16 they dramatically eliminated another European team, Serbia, 3:2, in a roller-coaster type of match.

Bulgaria are one of the surprise packages of the competition, having not won a medal since 2006, finishing 7th, 13th, 11th and 20th in the last editions. Now they have a chance to secure a medal, but they will face a strong USA team in the quarter-finals.

So far, Bulgaria have lost only two sets and are in red-hot form, but have lost four of the last five matches against the American team.

“We are in the top eight! I am super happy we get a chance to go ahead in the tournament. I am super proud and I am super happy, and I hope we can keep it going,” said Bulgaria’s Aleks Nikolov after their 3:0 win over Portugal in the Round of 16.

Türkiye have already ensured their best performance in history at the World Championship, as they lost only two sets in the first four matches, but will aim for more against Poland, which have also conceded only two sets so far.

It will be a true battle of resilience, but Poland have won all six mutual matches so far, therefore leaving Türkiye in a tough spot, forced to win their first match against Poland – a team which beat them twice, 3:0 and 3:0, in the last two years in the Nations League.