What a great way to finish the week! On the last competition day of the men’s Volleyball Nations League 2022 week one, the fans will get to see a duel between the reigning world champions and the Olympic title-holders, a clash between the silver and the bronze medallists of the previous VNL edition. Sunday’s game between Poland and France in Ottawa is set to start at 11:00 local time (15:00 GMT).
VNL 2022
Olympic vs. world champs to end VNL week one
France will lock horns with Poland vying to stay unbeaten
Published 08:12, 12 Jun 2022
France’s Boyer jump-serves in Ottawa
· Watch all VNL 2022 matches live on Volleyball TV.
France are one of two teams still unbeaten in VNL 2022, along with USA. Earlier this week in Ottawa, coach Andrea Giani’s squad defeated Italy, Serbia and hosts Canada, losing only a set along the way, on Thursday against the Serbs. Poland also mastered two straight-setters, against Argentina and Bulgaria, but lost to Italy in four sets in between. Coach Nikola Grbic’s team are fifth in the current standings.
France and Poland have met 24 times at major world-level competitions, with the Olympic champs leading the series by 13-11. They won both encounters with Poland in 2021, both after five-set battles.
On June 23 in Rimini, France won a roller-coaster VNL match against Poland by 3-2 (25-22, 21-25, 22-25, 25-20, 15-11), with their Earvin Ngapeth and Poland’s Wilfredo Leon leading the scorers on 18 points each. This way the French snatched the last available spot in the semifinals, finishing the Preliminary Round in fourth place on an 11-4 win-loss record, while Poland came second on 12-3. Adding a win and a loss each in the Finals, they both earned their places on the podium, Poland with the silver and France with the bronze. Nine of the players, who battled it out for that French win over Poland, will be available to Giani for this year’s clash with Poland.
The two teams met again on August 3 in a Tokyo 2020 Olympic quarterfinal. France came back from a set down twice in that match before celebrating with a 3-2 (21-25, 25-22, 21-25, 25-21, 15-9) victory, which paved their way to the semifinals and eventually to the top of the Olympic podium. Leon topped the scorers chart with 29 points for Poland. Jean Patry contributed 21 to France’s victory. As many as seven Olympic champions - MVP Earvin Ngapeth, Dream Teamer Barthelemy Chinenyeze, who has been the best blocker of the VNL so far with 11 stuffs to his name, Antoine Brizard, Jean Patry, Stephen Boyer, Kevin Tillie and Yacine Louati – are on coach Giani’s list of 14 athletes in Ottawa.
“It adds to the pressure to join an Olympic champion squad, but everyone made the effort to integrate me,” said French national team rookie Pierre Derouillon. “It's good to see that the coach trusts everyone, and that he can put everyone on the court.”
At the same time, Poland have travelled to the Canadian capital with only one Tokyo Olympian, middle blocker Jakub Kochanowski, and another two of the squad that took on France at the VNL in Rimini, opposite Maciej Muzaj and middle Karol Klos.
Poland’s Kochanowski jump-serves in Ottawa
After finishing their week in Ottawa, France will travel to Quezon City and Osaka for weeks two and three of the Preliminary Round, while Poland will be in Sofia, before hosting a pool in Gdansk.
Sunday’s VNL programme in Ottawa also includes fixtures between Argentina and Italy and between Bulgaria and Canada. In the other pool in Brasilia, hosts Brazil will entertain China, Iran will take on Japan and the Netherlands will face Australia
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