In front of them, they had the double reigning world champions. Not enough to scare the French men’s volleyball team, which played in the first Olympic quarter-final in its history. A time led 2 sets to 1, the Blues finally won in tie-break (3-2) against Poland, yet accustomed to the highest spheres.
The French volleyball players first chased the score, losing their first set (25 points to 21), then equalizing (25 to 22), losing again a set (25 to 21), then equalizing again (25 to 21) . Until this fifth set, where the “Polska! Polska! »And the applause of the Polish delegation diminished in intensity as the Blues widened their lead (15-9 in the end).
The Blues took over the “Best team in the world”, as French coach Laurent Tillie described it before the match. The coach lives his last competition with the Blues before handing over his functions to the Brazilian Bernardo Rezende. He knows his team by heart, never where you would expect them to.
The Blues come from afar, and they know it. In the first round, they first surprised in the wrong way: defeated by the United States (3-0) then against Argentina (3-2), but victorious over Russia (3-1), they had ensured their qualification for the quarters thanks to a point taken in a ric-rac defeat against Brazil (3-2).
“We knew it would be a bit like life and death”, captain Benjamin Toniutti explained about the games against Russia and Brazil. The victory over the Russians allowed the Blues to “Keep dreaming”, recounted Earvin Ngapeth, on the evening of July 30. “We let go, and we know that’s how we play best. “
The French team, never yet world champion, is preparing to play a historic semi-final at the Olympic Games, Thursday August 5. It will be opposed to Argentina. A team against which she had narrowly lost in the first round. A match that had “Disgusted” the Blues, according to Laurent Tillie.
Our selection of articles on the Tokyo 2021 Olympic Games