Men's World Championship 2025

First ever World Championship quarterfinal for Czechia as such

Czechia shut out Tunisia and will take on Serbia or Iran for a spot in the semifinals

Published 10:02, 23 Sept 2025

Tunisia (TUN) vs. Czechia (CZE) men - Round of 16 #60579827

Triumphant Lukas Vasina during Czechia’s Men’s Volleyball World Championship eighthfinal against Tunisia

Czechia qualified for the quarterfinals of an FIVB Volleyball Men’s World Championship for the first time in the history of the country. Even their mighty predecessors Czechoslovakia, who had collected two world titles and four silver medals from the first six editions of the competition, last made it among the top eight back 39 years ago, in 1986. In Tuesday’s Philippines 2025 eighthfinal game in Pasay City, Czechia shut out Tunisia to set up a quarterfinal encounter with either Serbia or Iran on Thursday. Who it will be will be decided later on Tuesday, when Serbia and Iran cross swords for the last available quarterfinal vacancy. The game serves off at 20:00 local time (12:00 UTC).

Watch the 2025 FIVB Volleyball Men's World Championship on VBTV

Czechia outclassed Tunisia in the first set and stayed well in control of the scoreboard. Outside hitter Lukas Vasina brought in set point and converted it himself to close the set at a six-point margin. Czechia continued their domination in set two and this time took it with a seven-point advantage to double their lead. Set three was quite different. Stepping up their serves, Tunisia stormed the set on a 4-0 run and opened a lead as wide as seven points, before a Jan Galabov inspired Czech team mounted a furious comeback towards a 3-0 (25-19, 25-18, 25-23) victory.

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Czechia outplayed Tunisia in all three scoring elements – by 42-32 in spike kills, by 8-4 in serving aces and by 4-2 in kill blocks. Opposite Patrik Indra spearheaded the team, spiking 13 points, including the match winner, at a 57% success rate. He also authored one of the team’s aces and tallied a match-high 14 points in total. Outside hitter Jan Galabov, who fueled Czechia’s comeback in the third set with a series of seven serves in a row, scored one ace and 12 points in attack at a 55% success rate to finish with 13 points. His cross-court teammate Vasina also tallied 13 points, firing two aces and registering a 52% success rate in offense.

“It’s something incredible! I think we are currently writing Czech volleyball’s history. We can say that dreams come true. We made our pretty hard way to the quarterfinals and we can be really proud of ourselves, but we are not finished yet. There are still more games ahead of us. I think we will continue to show the same performance,” Galabov told VBTV. “In the first two sets, we had the game under control, but then we probably lost a little bit of focus at the beginning, while Tunisia served pretty well, but hey, we came back. We turned the set around in our favor and it shows our team spirit. We really wanted to fight for every set and, in the end, we made it 3-0 for us, which was really positive.”

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Tunisia made one unforced error fewer than Czechia, 21-22. Two of their players – 22-year-old outside Oussama Ben Romdhane (spiking at a 63% success rate) and opposite Ali Bongui – reached the double digits with 10 points each, all in swings.

“From the beginning our objective here, in the Philippines, was to qualify for the second round. All the guys must be proud of what we did,” said Tunisia’s setter and captain Khaled Ben Slimene. “Today we tried, but we faced a strong team. We will come back next time and we will aim higher. It was a difficult tournament and all players had to apply all their power and all their capacity to be on a high level. We are at the World Championship and we must be proud and enjoy the moment.”