Netherlands beat Romania to celebrate second win at Men’s Volleyball World Championship

The Netherlands scored their second win at the 2025 FIVB Volleyball Men’s World Championship in the Philippines and took the lead in the current Pool B standings with six points. They took out Romania in straight sets in Quezon City on Monday, leaving the opponents bottom of the table without a set won.

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Despite the straight-set outcome, it was a hard-fought battle. Each of the three sets was decided by the narrowest of margins, with two going to overtime – 3-0 (25-23, 26-24, 26-24).

In the first set, the Dutch managed to come back from an early five-point deficit. In the second, Romania even had a six-point advantage at 14-8, only to let their opponents turn things around again and double their lead. The western European side was in control for most of the third set, but even in this case, the southern Europeans did not give up without a big fight and pushed the resolution beyond the 25^th point.

The two teams traded nine kill blocks each during the match. The Netherlands made slightly fewer unforced errors (21-24) than their rivals and mostly outperformed them from the serving line, by 10-4 in aces. Middle blocker Fabian Plak authored four of those, but it was opposite Michiel Ahyi, who led the way with five aces towards a match-high 19 points. Outside hitter Tom Koops spiked at a 60% success rate and put up a kill block to finish with 13 points.

Romania outplayed the Netherlands in attack, by 37-34 in spike kills. Their middle Bela Bartha impressed with an 80% success rate in attack and five kill blocks, to which he added an ace and emerged as the team’s leading scorer with a total of 14 points. Striker Rares Balean also reached the double digits with 12 points.

In the next Pool B match later on Monday, Poland will meet Qatar at 21:30 local time (13:30 UTC) and, if they live up to their status as favorites, both the Dutch and the Poles will book their spots in the eighthfinals.

2025 FIVB Volleyball Men’s World Championship: full schedule and results

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