Serbia, Poland and Turkiye qualify for World Cup 2027

Three European teams booked their tickets to the 2027 FIVB Volleyball Women’s World Cup in Canada and the United States after advancing to the 2026 CEV Women’s Volleyball European Championship semifinals along with Italy. Italy are already qualified for the World Cup as winners of the most recent edition of the World Championship in 2025, which means that the other three EuroVolley semifinalists – Serbia, Poland and Turkiye – will pick up the three continental berths at next year’s premier competition. Over the upcoming weekend, the four squads will battle it out for the spots on the European Championship podium and for the continental ticket to the Los Angeles 2028 Olympic Games women’s volleyball event.

Serbia’s journey at EuroVolley 2026 started from Pool B in Brno, Czechia, where they beat Austria, Czechia, Bulgaria, Greece and Ukraine, dropping only a set along the way, against the home team. They stayed in Brno for the first two elimination rounds. In the eighthfinals, the southern Europeans achieved a four-set victory over Croatia. In Wednesday’s quarterfinal, Maja Ognjenovic, Tijana Boskovic and their teammates mastered a 3-0 (25-14, 25-20, 25-17) shutout of Greece. Later the same day, Italy overcame Sweden in the second quarterfinal, which automatically meant that two-time (2018 and 2022) world champions Serbia are also qualified for World Cup 2027.

The next European ticket to the event in Canada and USA went to Poland. On Thursday afternoon in Istanbul, Magdalena Stysiak and company produced a 3-1 (25-16, 20-25, 25-20, 25-23) quarterfinal win over the Netherlands and progressed to the semifinals, still undefeated at EuroVolley 2026. The Poles, who are three-time World Championship medalists, but have not made the podium since 1962, won Pool A in the Turkish megalopolis with victories over Hungary, Latvia, Slovenia, Germany and Turkiye, and followed up with a straight-set sweep of their eighthfinal against Portugal.

After losing to Poland, but with wins over the other four teams in Pool A, Volleyball Nations League 2026 winners Turkiye advanced to the knockout rounds as pool runners-up. In their eighthfinal, they shut out Azerbaijan. In the last quarterfinal on Thursday evening, in front of well over 12 thousand spectators at the Sinan Erdem hall, Eda Erdem, Melissa Vargas and the rest of the home squad delivered a 3-1 (25-18, 22-25, 25-18, 25-22) victory over Germany to snatch the last semifinal vacancy and the third EuroVolley pass to the World Cup. Turkiye will return to the premier global event as silver medalists of last year’s World Championship.

The two semifinals in Istanbul will be played on Saturday: Turkiye v Serbia at 16:00 local time (13:00 UTC) and Poland v Italy at 19:00 (16:00). The two medal matches on Sunday will finalize the spots on the podium, with the new European champions booking a spot at Los Angeles 2028.

CEV Women's Volleyball European Championship: schedule and results

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