Brazil, France, Poland and Slovenia are the four teams qualified for the semifinals of the 2021 FIVB Men's Volleyball Nations League, with the first three teams returning to this stage of the competition and Slovenia making their debut.
VNL 2021
Poland look to move up podium, Slovenia debut in style
Will Slovenia's Cinderella story have a fairy-tale ending?
Published 07:55, 26 Jun 2021
With two-time winners Russia out of the competition, a new winner will be crowed on Sunday when the final takes place in Rimini, Italy.
This is the first time in VNL history that back-to-back winners Russia are not among the teams that qualified, despite their 3-0 win on the final day of the preliminary round. Instead, Brazil and Poland secured their spots on Tuesday, and Slovenia and France clinched their places on Wednesday.
Poland and Brazil return to the finals after 2019, while France are making a comeback after taking home silver in the 2018 edition.
Brazil and France will play the first semifinal at 11.30 local time, while Poland and Slovenia meet next at 15.00.
Reigning world champions Poland are seeking to improve on their bronze medal finish in 2019 and they have a great mix of seasoned and young players to make that possible.
Poland already had a strong lineup headed by their veterans Michal Kubiak, Karol Klos, Piotr Nowakowski, Fabian Drzyzga, Bartosz Kurek, Pawel Zatorski who all have world championship rings. But with the addition of Wilfredo Leon and a talented list of young hitters, winning seems a distinct possibility for coach Vital Heynen's team.
They ranked second in the Preliminary Round, after recording 12 victories and three defeats, including their five-set match against France that ended in the latter’s favour.
They have the same win-loss record as their semifinal rivals Slovenia, who won all their matches in the fifth week.
In Week 5, the Slovenians’ played their fourth fifth-set match in the VNL against the United States and succeeded for the third time in a tiebreaker, then got their composure back in their matches against Japan and Bulgaria with straight-set victories.
Klemen Cebulj, Toncek Stern and Tine Urnaut are the team’s core hitters and their enabler is Gregor Ropret who was the preliminary round’s top setter with 375 successful sets.
In their first encounter with Poland, they won in four sets, with the Slovenian core hitters scoring in double figures.
