Men's World Championship 2025

Sensational! France – out! Argentina and Finland – in at Men’s Volleyball World Championship knockouts!

Argentina knock out France in spectacular five-set battle

Published 01:49, 18 Sept 2025

France (FRA) vs. Argentina (ARG) men - Pool C #59758397

Argentina celebrate their hard-fought victory over France at the Men’s Volleyball World Championship

Shockingly, reigning two-time back-to-back Olympic champions France are out of the 2025 FIVB Volleyball Men’s World Championship in the Philippines! It was Argentina and Finland that pushed from Pool C through to the eighthfinals. In the last match of the pool in Quezon City on Thursday, Argentina outlasted France after five sets of play and topped the final pool standings undefeated. In the first knockout round, they will play the winner of the last Pool F game between Italy and Ukraine, starting shortly in Quezon City. Finland finished pool runners-up on a 2-1 win-loss record and will challenge Pool F winners Belgium for a spot in the quarterfinals.

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

Argentina had the lead for the most part of the two sets, but edged both by the narrowest of margins, still putting France with their backs against the wall. The Olympic champions fought back and leveled the score to prompt a tie-breaker. At that moment, the point ratio calculations already pointed to Finland as a sure pool runner-up and eighthfinalist, so in that fifth set, the first place in the pool and the second ticket to the next round were at stake. The South American side stayed more concentrated, kept their cool through the end, which came with Luciano Vicentin’s successful swing for 3-2 (28-26, 25-23, 21-25, 20-25, 15-12).

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Argentina outdid France in net defense, by 11-5 in kill blocks, and made fewer unforced errors than the opponent, 32-34. Opposite Pablo Koukartsev authored four of those kill blocks to finish with a total of 10 points. Outside hitter Luciano Vicentin was the best scorer of the match. He spiked 21 points at a 64% success rate and added an ace to top the charts with a match-high 22 points. His cross-court teammate and namesake Luciano Palonsky added another 17 points, all in swings, while captain and middle blocker Agustin Loser registered a 69% success rate in offense, raised two kill blocks and put away an ace to sign off with 12 points.

“It was incredible! We played against the two-time Olympic champions, so it was a big game for us. Of course, for them too, I think. I am happy. Our team won two sets, and after we were down, we came back. We just fight. This is our culture in our country, so we just keep going,” Vicentin told VBTV.

France were more successful in offense than their South American opponents. They tallied 71 attacking points against 62 for Argentina. The European team also edged ahead in serving by 3-2 in aces. The Olympic champs were led by outside Trevor Clevenot with 16 points, all in swings. Sub-in opposite Theo Faure added another 13 spike kills. The two middle blockers - Barthelemy Chinenyeze, who suffered an injury and was replaced during set four, and Nicolas Le Goff, who shined with a 90% success rate in attack – also reached the double digits with 11 points apiece.