Argentina (ARG) vs. France (FRA) men - Pool 1 - Preliminary Phase #46939010

Argentina collected their first three points in the VNL 2025 against France

Defending Volleyball Nations League champions France went down in their first match in the 2025 edition of the tournament, falling to Argentina in Quebec on Wednesday, the first day of matches in Pool 1.

Fielding a very young lineup for this week’s matches at the Centre Vidéotron, the Olympic champions were faced with a fiery Argentinean side, which prevailed in four sets. Reigning world champions Italy had a different first step in the VNL 2025, winning their match against Bulgaria.

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Showing glimpses of the team that won both the VNL and the Olympics last year, the French were able to take a set from Argentina, but the South Americans were better in the key moments to produce a 3-1 (25-22, 13-25, 25-22, 25-19) victory in Canada.

Argentina vs. France - Highlights | Men's VNL 2025

Argentinean opposite Pablo Kukartsev was the match’s top scorer with 15 points (14 kills, one block). Outside hitter Luciano Palonsky came next, with 14 (13 kills, one ace).

“It’s always a beautiful thing to start the VNL with a big win against a young, but amazing team,” Kukartsev reacted. “We played an incredible game. It was tough, but we won and we’ll take it. We know where we need to improve going forward, and step by step, we’ll get there. We got a little nervous in the second set and started making mistakes, but we recovered.”

On the French side, the two Olympic champions that made the trip to Canada, outside hitter Trévor Clévenot and opposite Théo Faure, were the team’s most productive players with 13 points apiece. Playing in his first VNL match, outside hitter Mathis Henno delivered 12.

“It was our first match with a new team and we are proud of what we did,” the 20-year-old Henno said. “We lost, but I think it was a pretty good performance from us and I’m proud. It’s my first time with the national team and I can only be happy. We have other matches coming up during week and we can only get better.”

Besides the first three points in the VNL standings, the victory over the Olympic champions also earned Argentina a spot in the FIVB World Rankings as the 13.12 points collected with their triumph took them from ninth to eighth place – France continue in second place.

Giannelli leads Italy to successful debut

Reigning world champions Italy also had a solid start to their VNL campaign in Quebec, beating continental rivals Bulgaria 3-1 (25-16, 22-25, 25-19, 25-19) in the first match of the day at the Centre Vidéotron.

Team captain and star setter Simone Giannelli ran the Italian offense in a very efficient way and saw four of his hitters get to double digits in scoring against the Bulgarians – outside hitter Mattia Bottolo (13), middle blockers Giovanni Gargiulo (13) and Simone Anzani (ten) and opposite Kamil Rychlicki (ten) -, besides scoring an incredible eight points himself, with three kills, three blocks and two aces.

“Bulgaria played great volleyball today, with a lot of defense and really good serving,” Gargiulo said. “I’m happy that we didn’t lose our minds when we were down, we kept playing, and that’s what we are supposed to do in the first week. We haven’t played together in a while, so it’s difficult to just get back and play like we did today. We have a lot of good players who can help the team, and that’s what happened today.”

Bulgarian star outside hitter Aleksandar Nikolov was the match’s top scorer with 17 points (14 kills, two aces, one block). Team captain and middle blocker Iliya Petkov had ten (eight kills, two blocks) and 18-year-old star setter Simeon Nikolov registered seven, with three kills and four aces.

Canada beat Germany in five sets

The first five-setter of the VNL 2025 went Canada's way as the home team came back twice to triumph 3-2 (23-25, 25-19, 21-25, 25-23, 15-11) over Germany in the last match of the first day of action, earning their first victory under the guidance of new head coach Dan Lewis.

Opposite Ryan Sclater and outside hitter Jackson Young delivered each 17 points for the winning side, one more than outside hitter Brodie Hofer.

Germany had the match's top scorer in outside hitter Erik Röhrs, who tallied 20 points, with 19 kills and one ace. Opposite Filip John contributed 15, with 13 kills, one block and one ace.

VNL 2025 – Match Schedule & Results

On Thursday, only two duels will be held in Pool 1, European rivals Germany and Italy battling first, at 16:30 local time (20:30 GMT), and Argentina and Canada meeting later, at 20:00 (00:00 GMT, Friday).

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