The Blues are back in the elite: one year after their failure in the quarter-finals of the 2022 World Cup, the French men’s volleyball team reached the last four of Euro 2023 by dominating Romania, Monday September 11, at Varna in Bulgaria. She thus qualified for the semi-finals which will be played in Rome, winning 3 sets to 0 (25-22, 25-14, 27-25).
Andrea Giani’s players could meet the Italians, reigning European and world champions, in the semi-finals on Thursday, who however still have to pass the Dutch obstacle on Tuesday.
While waiting for this possible shock, of which they would not be favorites, captain Benjamin Toniutti and his teammates can draw a positive conclusion from their meeting on Monday evening.
Revenge against the Romanians who had beaten them in the group stages
After extinguishing the Bulgarian public and the formidable Tsvetan Sokolov and Martin Atanasov in the round of 16 (3-0), on Monday they took their revenge on the Romanians who had beaten them in the group stage (3-1).
This defeat had no impact on the rest of their tournament, since they were already assured of participating in the round of 16, but, by their own admission, it forced them to question themselves.
And the Romanian shock took effect: a statistic allows us to measure it, that of service faults (14 Monday evening, compared to 24 during the first confrontation between the two teams).
It is precisely thanks to the services of Timothée Carle that the Blues made the difference in a very tight first set. The receiver-attacker from Berlin (7 points), revelation of this international season where he took advantage of the long absence due to injury of Earvin Ngapeth, chained four serves which allowed France to go from 18-20 to 22-20.
The Romanians, serene until then in the wake of Robert Aciobanitei, lost their footing and gave up the opening round to an attack from Barthélémy Chinenyeze (9 points).
The Blues, excited, started the second set ideally to lead 6-0, then 14-7 and complete the set in just twenty-three minutes.
Stung, the Romanians started the third set with a scathing 5-0, but were unable to resist the comeback of the Blues, winners 27-25.
“A France-Italy would be a classic”
“We wanted to show the true face of this team, not the one we showed in the group stage against these Romanians. There was a little desire for revenge, but above all a desire to play our game”, analyzed the sharp Jean Patry, author of 14 points.
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“We are where we wanted to be with all the favorites, assuming our status, which is not always easy for us”noted the passer Antoine Brizard.
One year before the Paris Olympic Games, the Blues have reassured themselves and made people forget the impression of unfinished business for Euro 2021 (9e place) disputed at the end of an exhausting international season and especially the 2022 World Cup (5e place) where they suffered in the quarter-finals from the Italians (3-2).
“A France-Italy would be a classic, it’s the kind of match we like to play, there will be a lot of people there, we can’t wait”, rejoiced Barthélémy Chinenyeze. If they were to beat the Nazionale at home in the semi-finals and then win a second European title after 2015 in the final on Saturday, the Blues could once again scare the entire volleyball world.
Until then, the other semi-final will pit Slovenia, finalist of three of the four previous Euros (2015, 2019 and 2021), against the winner of the quarter-final between Poland and Serbia, also scheduled for Tuesday.