Brazil defeated Argentina in four sets to qualify for the FIVB Volleyball Men’s World Championship 2022 semifinals. Their outside hitter Yoandy Leal steered the team to a 3-1 (25-16, 23-25, 25-22, 25-21) quarterfinal victory as the leading scorer of the match in Gliwice on Thursday.
Men's World Championship 2022
Leal powers Brazil through to semifinal
The star outside contributes the match high of 25 points
Published 05:46, 08 Sept 2022
Brazil will find out their opponents in Saturday’s semifinals in Katowice later on Thursday. They will face the winner of the last quarterfinal, between Poland and the United States, set to begin at 21:00 local time (19:00 GMT) in Gliwice.
· Watch all FIVB Volleyball Men's World Championship 2022 matches live on Volleyball TV.
Leal produced as many as 25 points towards the win. He spiked 22 at a success rate of 65% and added two aces and a stuff block to his tally to top the scorers’ chart of the game, followed by opposites Wallace De Souza of Brazil and Bruno Lima of Argentina with 13 points apiece.
📺 LIVE NOW ON VBTV!
— Volleyball World (@volleyballworld) September 8, 2022
World Champs Quarterfinal Match: Argentina 🇦🇷 🆚 🇧🇷 Brazil
📺 Watch the World Champs on VBTV.
🏐 #Electrifying2022 #Volleyball #MWCH2022 pic.twitter.com/opmnQDHkvm
With Wallace behind the serving line, Brazil stormed into the match with a four-point run for 5-1. Outside hitter Ezequiel Palacios led the Argentinean attack as his team fought back to level it at 8-8. However, Brazil broke away again with another five points in a row for 13-8, this time with outside hitter Ricardo Lucarelli serving, and never looked back. Leal delivered set point at 24-15 after two consecutive points, a spike and a block, out of a total of 10 in the set, before Wallace closed it off at 25-16 with a successful swing.
Argentina opened a two-point lead in the second set with Agustin Loser on fire in the middle, but his counterpart Lucas Saatkamp hammered an ace to tie the score at 12-12. Lima reacted with an ace of his own to restore his team’s two-point advantage at 14-12. Then it was Leal’s turn to score from the end line and the balance was restored at 15-15. A monster block by Wallace finally put Brazil in front at 19-18. Still their opponents kept their cool to regain control and level the match at 25-23, with Lima hitting the winner.
Two back-to-back kill blocks by middle Flavio Gualberto gave Brazil an early 6-3 lead in the third set. With Wallace swinging away, they kept up the pressure to extend it to 10-6 and then through the rest of the set they managed to fight off Argentina’s assertive attempts at a comeback until Leal put in the last touch for 25-22.
Leal put in the first ace of the fourth set for 7-5. However, two monster blocks in a row, by outside Facundo Conte and then by Loser, put Argentina in front with an 8-7 lead. They were even able to widen the gap to three and prompted a setter substitution on Brazil’s side, captain Bruno Rezende for Fernando Kreling. The Brazilians caught up at 16-16 on a blistering ace by Leal. It went point for point for a while. In the money time, Lucas fired an ace to put Brazil at a 22-20 advantage and kept serving through match point. A moment later, the Brazilians were celebrating with a 25-21 win on an opponent error for the winning point.
“A game against Argentina is always difficult and we knew this game would be tough,” Lucarelli said after the match. “We are happy because we qualified for the semifinals, of course, but also because we won a difficult game. There will be no easy way in the semifinals either. Whether it will be against Poland or USA, it will be a tough game. But right now we need to celebrate and tomorrow we’ll turn the page.”
