Türkiye demolish Serbia to seal first spot in #EuroVolleyW gold medal match

Three years ago Türkiye and Serbia had delivered the longest and most closely contested gold medal match in EuroVolley history. This time, playing each other in the semis, Türkiye required only 86 minutes to stamp an emphatic 3-0 victory (25-20, 25-19, 25-20) before a crowd of 15,824 passionate fans that had come together to cheer for the Sultans of the Net. This way, Türkiye have secured their fourth appearance in a EuroVolley gold medal match in their history – after previously achieving this feat in 2003, 2019, and 2023. They also made sure they would secure a medal for the fifth straight edition of the continental championship – a series that started with bronze in Baku in 2017.  

Türkiye vs. Serbia 3-0 (25-20, 25-19, 25-20) 

The repeat of the drama-filled 2023 gold medal match was a fixture that the fans had been eagerly anticipating almost since the start of the competition. A large, sell-out crowd came together on Saturday afternoon as the ‘Sultans of the Net’ played a Serbian side that had conceded only one set this far in the competition. Türkiye looked determined to delight their audience from the early stages of the opening set with Melissa Vargas as always representing their most prolific player and dominant force. Serbia had to fight back multiple times and even though they closed in at 22-20, Türkiye found the strength and the composure required to close the set in their favour with Vargas (eight points) and captain Eda Erdem (six) standing out for the home side. 

The emotions were running high early in the second set where Serbia’s coach Zoran Terzic received a yellow card after an altercation with the first referee and the 2023 silver medal winners were visibly struggling with their passing as Türkiye rushed to a commanding 8-3 lead. Terzic replaced captain and setter Maja Ognjenovic with Sladjana Mirkovic but Serbia continued to make too many mistakes to represent a real threat to the home side (10-6). Serbia eventually found a way to cope with the pressure and they drew level at 12-all following a 3-m line violation by Vargas. However, Türkiye had another positive streak to break away again (19-15). With Serbia still playing without stars such as Ognjenovic and Aleksandra Uzelac and continuing to struggle in reception, Türkiye remained in control until the end of the set with Zehra Günes leading the way on seven points, including three blocks.  

Terzic decided to stick with Mirkovic in the third set as well, but Türkiye looked simply unstoppable. They controlled the match and even though Serbia attempted to mount a comeback by scoring three points in a row from 20-14 to 20-17, it was too little too late to close in as the 2023 gold medal winners sealed a rather unexpected 3-0 win. Vargas top scored with 18 points well supported by Erdem and Günes with 11 apiece. What obviously made the difference was also Serbia’s poor performance in reception (35% positive vs 56% for the home side) and their 11 errors from the service line alone. Tijana Boskovic was as a result not effective, scoring 14 points including 12 kills with a 34% success rate.