Nils Ehlers & Clemens Wickler advanced to Saturday’s final of the men’s Olympic beach volleyball tournament at Paris 2024, dethroning the Tokyo 2020 Olympic champions in a stunning semifinal on Thursday afternoon at the Eiffel Tower Stadium. The third-seeded Germans showed their class in a high-calibre clash with second-seeded Anders Mol & Christian Sorum of Norway and became the second German pair in history to make it to the men’s Olympic final, after Jonas Reckermann & Julius Brink, who triumphed at London 2012.

In a high-adrenalin three-setter, Ehlers & Wickler celebrated a 2-1 (21-13, 17-21, 15-13) victory over the Norwegian Beachvolley Vikings, outplaying the opponents in attack and blocking. Ehlers played a fantastic game at the net, raising as many as nine kill blocks towards an impressive match high of 30 points. Wickler put away 14 points, including the team’s only ace. Mol was Norway’s best scorer with 17 points, including six kill blocks and two aces, while Sorum finished with 12 points.

Mol & Sorum started the match a little better, opening a two-point lead, but Ehlers & Wickler recovered swiftly. After 5-3, they scored four consecutive points to step in front with a 7-5 lead. Through the end of the set, the Germans completely outclassed the Olympic champions, with Ehlers the master of the net with as many as five kill blocks, including the 21-13 set winner. But the Vikings wouldn’t be the Vikings if they gave up easily after a set like that. They stormed the second set on a 3-0 run and never let go of their lead, with the opponents making too many unforced errors, while Mol’s blocking also started bringing in points. The Germans kept battling, but all they could do was get back to within one on a couple of occasions.

The drama of the tie-breaker was yet to unfold. It was once again the Norwegians who started off stronger, but Ehlers & Wickler kept their cool, scored four in a row to take control with a 6-4 lead. Mol & Sorum kept fighting to catch up a few times, but were never quite able to regain the lead. An off-the-block hit by Ehlers brought in the 14-12 match point. Sorum denied it once with a successful swing, but when Mol’s block seemed to have leveled the score, a net fault challenge by the Germans proved successful, so they could start celebrating.

“It's unbelievable! It's a dream coming true!” an elated Ehlers told the FIVB after the game. “We always focused on this, every day, every hard training we did in the last years, it was our goal. It's so amazing to get it, to make it happen in front of this crowd at this venue. So many German fans, our families, and friends, everybody saw us. It's just unbelievable!

“First, we celebrate - we won the semifinal. And then we're going to focus on the final match. We will see if it's gold or silver. I think both would be amazing for our federation, for our country. And we are so happy that we could make it happen.”

“We have never won against this team before, but we always believed that we can win,” Wickler added. “I think the key today was that we were fighting as a team. It didn't matter if we were in front like in the first set or behind like in the second, or it was a tight game, like in the third. So, yeah, being on the court as a team, supporting each other - I think this is our key to success at the Olympics so far.”

The winner of Thursday evening’s semifinal between Tokyo 2020 bronze medallists Cherif Younousse & Ahmed Tijan of Qatar and top-seeded David Ahman & Jonatan Hellvig of Sweden, set to start at 22:00 local time (20:00 UTC), will take on Ehlers & Wickler for the Olympic gold on Saturday.

Olympic Games Paris 2024 Beach Volleyball: schedule and results

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