European sides France and Slovenia had to dig deep, but managed to claim the last two spots in the semifinals of the Volleyball Nations League 2024 and will be fighting for medals over the weekend in Łódź, Poland, when the VNL Finals come to an end.
VNL 2024
France and Slovenia complete VNL semifinal lineup
The Europeans will face Poland and Japan for a place in the gold medal match on Saturday
Published 09:01, 28 Jun 2024
French outside hitters Trevor Clevenot and Kevin Tillie combined for 35 points against Italy
- Watch Volleyball Nations League 2024 live on VBTV
The two teams, which both needed five sets to win their quarterfinal duels on Friday, will be back on the court on Saturday, with Olympic champions France playing hosts and defending champions Poland at 17:00 local time (15:00 GMT) and Slovenia meeting last year’s bronze medalists Japan at 20:00 local time (18:00 GMT). The medal matches will be held on Sunday, having the same start times.
In the first quarterfinal of the day, France came back twice to overcome a young Italy team 3-2 (19-25, 25-20, 22-25, 25-22, 15-11) in Łódź to return to the VNL semifinals after missing it out in 2023.
Jean Patry and Trevor Clevenot both had excellent performances, combining for 48 points in the match – the opposite tallied 28 points (25 kills, two aces, one block) and the outside hitter added another 20 (19 kills, one ace). Outside hitter Kevin Tillie also had a solid match, with 15 points.
“I don’t think many people expected the match to be so tough, but this young Italian team is very good,” libero Jenia Grebennikov said. “They’re used to playing in the Italian League and some of those guys have already won the Champions League too. We’ve been working very hard physically and tactically for the Olympics and are not fully ready yet, but matches like this help us get there.”
FRANCE 🇫🇷 TO FACE POLAND 🇵🇱!
— Volleyball World (@volleyballworld) June 28, 2024
After being put to the test by Italy, the reigning Olympic Champions will face defending VNL champions 🇵🇱 in the semifinals on June 29.
📺 Watch the matches on VBTV.
🏐 #volleyball #VNLLodz #VNLFinals pic.twitter.com/49GMvcaBOP
On the Italian side, 24-year-old Mattia Bottolo (18 points), 23-year-old Leandro Mosca (15), 20-year-old Luca Porro (15), 20-year-old Alessandro Bovolenta (14) and 24-year-old Giovanni Sanguinetti (ten) all had double digits in scoring.
“I’m proud of the team, these guys are wonderful” setter Riccardo Sbertoli reflected. “We played very well and at the end, a couple of points made the difference for them. France did a great job of staying in the game. We started serving very well, but they are a strong and experienced team and deserve the credit for their victory.”
Slovenia challenged by Argentina
The second quarterfinal duel of the day followed a similar script, with Slovenia, the best team in the VNL Preliminary Phase, trailing twice before completing a comeback to beat Argentina 3-2 (19-25, 25-17, 17-25, 29-27, 15-7) and advance.
The second-best scorer of the VNL 2024, opposite Tonček Štern came up big for the Europeans, producing a match-high 31 points, with 27 kills, three blocks and one ace. Outside hitters Klemen Čebulj and Tine Urnaut contributed 16 and 12 points, respectively.
“Argentina were playing very well today and it was such a difficult match,” Urnaut reacted. “We played them a few days ago in Ljubljana, but today it was an entirely different match. I’m happy that we managed to come back and played so well in the tie-breaker. Against Japan, we need to pay attention to the details and not give too many points to them.”
Slovenian players celebrate a point against Argentina
Argentina’s offense had opposite Bruno Lima, with 26 points (19 kills, five blocks, two aces), and outside hitter Luciano Palonsky, with 18 (15 kills, two blocks, one ace), as its most effective players against the Slovenians.
