Slovenia confirm progress with stunning victory over Germany, Poland refocus to beat Hungary
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The CEV Trendyol EuroVolley 2026 Women Pool A action resumed on Saturday with the ever-improving Slovenia – silver medal winners from this year’s European League – delivering a majestic show of strength to rout Germany in three sets – courtesy of the 24 points scored by their star player Fatoumatta Sillah and an overall incredibly flawless performance. Later in the evening, Poland recorded a 3-0 victory over Hungary – the youngest team in the competition, whose roster includes three bronze medal winners from this year’s #EuroVolleyU18W – but the White-and-Reds had to work hard for it after clearly losing focus in the second set following a very one-sided start to the match.
Germany vs. Slovenia 0-3 (22-25, 21-25, 20-25)
With the second youngest roster in the tournament (their average age standing at 22.95), as many as eight of their 14 players making their EuroVolley debut and two – Pia Cvijić and Iza Koren – even contesting their very first match with the ‘senior’ national team, Slovenia came out blazing, rushing to a massive 7-1 lead in the first set. It took some time for Germany to find their way into the match and they eventually did so halfway through the opening set. However, Slovenia showed much composure and quality in the late stages to seal the opening set 25-22 following a final rally where German libero Annie Cesar failed to control a spike coming from the opposite side of the net.
Fresh from securing their historic participation in next year’s Volleyball Nations League, Team Slovenia – cheered on by a small group of fans – continued to perform well in the second set as well. Their Gambian-born star player Fatoumatta Sillah had scored seven points in the opening set alone well-supported, among others, by the only 17-year-old libero Zoja Donko, the fifth youngest player in the competition. The combination of solid block-defence, composure, smooth organisation and Sillah’s attacking power proved instrumental to Slovenia’s incredibly strong finish in the second set, where Sillah’s point no. 16 doubled their lead in the match (25-21).
Germany would not go down without putting up a fight and managed to lead the way for most of the third set. However, Slovenia closed in at 16-16 and eventually edged ahead for the first time at 18-17 on a German error. Germany’s challenge for a block touch was unsuccessful and was followed by yet another German mistake. Germany’s coach Giulio Bregoli could not find a way to stop Slovenia’s comeback and a swing by Lorena Lorber Fijok eventually sealed a terrific 3-0 win for the European League 2026 silver medal winners. This result is a complete reverse of what happened in the 8th Finals of the 2019 edition – when Germany had routed Slovenia in three sets, but much has changed in the development of these two teams ever since.
Fatoumatta Sillah“Even though the result may come as a surprise, I did really have no doubts about the potential and the quality of my team and that we would be able to show what we are capable of – and so we did, pushing them from the very beginning of the match. Tomorrow we play Türkiye – one of the strongest teams in the world and the home favourites. We just take it as another opportunity to show our continued progress even though we understand it will not be easy, even more so with the crowd behind them.”
Team Slovenia and match top scorer with 24 points
Hungary vs. Poland 0-3 (12-25, 24-26, 20-25)
As the no. 5 team in the world with the ultimate goal of qualifying for the Los Angeles 2028 Olympic Games as declared by Magdalena Stysiak in the pre-match interview, Poland were obviously the pre-favourites in the matchup with Hungary. Hungary, semi-finalists in this year’s European League, have travelled to Istanbul with the youngest roster (21 years and 41 days) not only in the competition but also since the 2001 edition of the CEV EuroVolley Women, including as many as three bronze medal winners from this year’s #EuroVolleyU18W. The difference in power, size and experience came to the fore in the opening set, which Poland speedily secured with a massive 25-12 score sealed by Monika Lampkowska.
By the score of 13-5 in the second set, it seemed as if this match was some sort of a routine training session for Poland and yet the White-and-Reds relaxed a way too early. This is exactly where Hungary settled in more and more with each rally and an opportunity opened for the side coached by Alessandro Chiappini to mount a comeback that only a few could have anticipated. Hungary strengthened their block-defence and found in their European League top scorers Anett Nemeth (12 points) and Lilla Kiss the pivotal players to fight their way back and even edge ahead at 23-22. However, they obviously felt the nerves and some pressure as more and more was at stake – and this is where Poland made their experience count and eventually pulled off a 26-24 win on a net fault made by their opponent.
Hungary took that same momentum into the third set where they continued to fight as much as they could and they succeeded in doing so until 20-all. This is where Poland’s quality made the difference as the favourites scored five points in a row to claim their first victory in this tournament with three of their players finishing in double digits – Stysiak (15), Lampkowska (13) and Maja Koput (12). Despite that one-sided first set, Hungary’s scoring machine Anett Nemeth recorded the most points in the match with 22. With this result, Poland claimed a third straight victory over Hungary in the EuroVolley pool stage – after previous 3-1 triumphs in 2017 and 2023.
Aleksandra Szczyglowska“Volleyball is also about focus and we obviously lost it in the second set, whereas Hungary fought hard and they pushed us a lot. I must acknowledge their good performance, whereas we have to take some lessons from what happened in the second set. Our ambitions remain high though – we have been practicing extremely well and we know what we aim for, which is ultimately to qualify for Los Angeles 2028.”
Libero and captain of Poland