Brazil and China, Türkiye and Italy battle for spots in the VNL semis

The American city of Arlington is ready for the second day of the Volleyball Nations League 2023 Finals on Thursday, when the last two women’s quarterfinal matches will be played at the College Park Center.

The second day of competition in Texas will start early, with Brazil and China battling at 10:30 local time (15:30 UTC) and will continue with the encounter between Türkiye and Italy at 14:00 local time (19:00 UTC).

• Watch Volleyball Nations League 2023 Finals live on VBTV

The winners of the match between Brazilians and Chinese will play Poland or Germany, who face each other on Wednesday, while Turkish or Italians will meet the team that advances from the duel involving hosts USA and Japan, also on Wednesday. The semifinals will be held on Saturday, with the medal matches ending the event on Sunday.

After taking silver in the last three editions of the VNL, Brazil will try to push for gold in 2023 after finishing fourth in the Preliminary Phase with eight victories.

Ranked third in the FIVB Women’s Volleyball World Rankings, the South Americans had star outside hitter Gabriela ‘Gabi’ Guimarães available in the last week of the Preliminary Phase and got even stronger in the middle, with two-time Olympic champion middle blocker Thaisa Menezes returning to the national team after five years to join Ana Carolina ‘Carol’ da Silva in the position.

“We’ve been studying China for a while,” head coach José ‘Zé Roberto’ Guimarães commented. “They are very strong in the middle, so serving well and giving our blockers a better chance to make plays would be key for us.”

China were fifth in the Preliminary Phase with the same eight wins and 24 points as Brazil, but ranked below the South Americans because of their slightly lower set ratio. The teams met in their first match in the Preliminary Phase, back in May, and the Asians won in the tie-breaker, securing their third victory in the last five encounters between the teams.

Outside hitter Li Yingying has been very strong offensively for the Chinese and her connection with setter Diao Linyu looks sharper than ever.

Volleyball Nations League 2023: full schedule and results

The third-best team in the Preliminary Phase with nine victories in 12 matches, Türkiye will try to improve from the silver medal they won in 2018 and the bronze they took in 2021.

The Europeans have a new coach in Daniele Santarelli, who left Serbia after leading them to the world title last year, and welcomed an outstanding new offensive weapon in Cuban-born opposite Melissa Vargas, who joins a strong core formed by middle blockers Eda Erdem and Zehra Gunes and opposite Ebrar Karakurt.

Defending champions Italy preserved their main stars during the Preliminary Phase and still managed to make it to the Finals and have a chance to defend their title by winning eight of their 12 matches and finishing sixth.

“In the Finals, every match will be difficult,” said outside hitter Francesa Villani. “We’re very confident and positive because of what we did in the Preliminary Phase and I think it’s going to be a good match against Türkiye. We have grown a lot as a team and entering this match, we need to focus on what happens on our side of the net.”

The 12 matches of the Preliminary Phase proved to be of great value for some young players such as opposite Sylvia Nwakalor and outside hitter Loveth Omoruyi to earn some much-needed playing time and they will now be viable options for the European champions in the Finals alongside veterans such as captain Miryam Sylla and middle blocker Anna Danesi.

The duel between Turkish and Italians during the Preliminary Phase happened on the last day of the opening week, in Antalya, and Türkiye took advantage of the support of the home crowd to prevail in three sets – they won three of the last five matches between the teams.

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