Slovenia confirm steady progress with stunning victory over Germany
News
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 lock horns with Hungary – the youngest team in the competition, whose rosters includes three bronze medal winners from this year’s #EuroVolleyU18W.
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