Brazil back to Finals zone after straight-set win over Olympic champs France

In one of the nine men’s Volleyball Nations League matches played on the third competition week’s opening day, Brazil mastered an emphatic shutout of reigning two-time back-to-back Olympic champions France and climbed back up above the cut-off line in the current VNL standings for qualification to the Finals in China. Poland, USA, Cuba, Argentina, Japan, Slovenia, Ukraine and Turkiye also celebrated victories on Wednesday.

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Brazilian opposite Darlan Souza fired four of the team’s five aces towards Brazil’s 3-0 (25-23, 25-23, 25-19) sweep of their game against France in Chicago. He emerged with a match-high total of 13 points. Outside hitter Adriano Cavalcante added another 11 points for the winners. The Olympic champions were led by 21-year-old outside hitter Mathis Henno with 12 points. Opposite Stephen Boyer also reached the double digits with 10 points for France, including two aces. Brazil overtook Bulgaria and Italy and entered the Finals zone of the table, in seventh place on a 6-3 win-loss record and 16 points. On 4-5 and 10 in 12^th place, France’s chances of making it to China seem slimmer and slimmer.

Brazil managed to win a match in straight sets for the second time in this VNL. So did defending champions Poland. In the opening game on the Chicago program, they hammered out a solid 3-0 (25-19, 25-17, 25-17) shutout of 2025 World Championship runners-up Bulgaria and improved to 7-2 and 20, currently occupying third place in the table. The southern European team dropped to 5-4 and 14 in ninth place. Middle blocker Bartlomiej Lemanski fired an impressive five aces and raised four kill blocks towards a total of 11 points, which made him the second best scorer of the match, after opposite Bartlomiej Boladz, who led the way with a match-high 13 points. None of the Bulgarian players reached the double digits, not even their 22-year-old star scorer Aleksandar Nikolov, who led the team with eight points.

In Wednesday’s closing VNL match, the United States pleased the home fans in Chicago with a 3-0 (25-19, 25-13, 25-20) victory over Finals hosts China. The Americans are running in second place on 7-2 and 22, while the Asian team is now stuck at the very bottom of the table, in 18^th place on 1-8 and 4. The two US outside hitters – Cooper Robinson (three aces, two kill blocks) and Ethan Champlin (two aces) – shared the match top scorer honors with 14 points apiece. 20-year-old opposite Cole Hartke chipped in with another 11 points, including two aces and two stuffs. China’s leading scorer – outside Li Lei – signed off with eight points, all in swings.

Earlier on Wednesday, three matches were played in Osaka. Argentina came back from two sets down to beat Canada. Cuba scored their first win in VNL 2026, a straight-setter over rookies Belgium. Japan remained undefeated on top of the table after a spectacular five-set victory over reigning world champions Italy.

Another three games took place in Belgrade. Slovenia and Ukraine achieved four-set victories over Germany and Iran, respectively, before hosts Serbia were stunned in straight sets by a trending Turkiye.

VNL 2026 schedule and results
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