Heavyweights set to clash in the VNL semifinals

The four best national teams in the Volleyball Nations League 2025 Preliminary Phase, Italy, Brazil, Japan and Poland confirmed their condition in the tournament’s quarterfinals and now head into the weekend determined to fight for the title of the seventh edition of the VNL.

The semifinals will be held on Saturday at the Atlas Arena, in Łódź, with Italy and hosts Poland playing first, at 16:00 local time (14:00 GMT), and Brazil and Japan following, at 20:00 (18:00 GMT). The winners will meet in Sunday’s gold medal match, at 20:00, while the losers will play for bronze four hours earlier.

• Watch the Volleyball Nations League Finals live on VBTV

This year’s VNL semifinals will be the exact same as last season, highlighting the strength of the four national teams, which also occupy the top four spots in the FIVB World Rankings. In 2024, Italy defeated Poland in the semifinals and went on to secure the title against Japan, which eliminated Brazil.

Defending champions Italy, who also won the VNL in 2022, get to the semifinals in great form after going undefeated in the Preliminary Phase and sweeping the United States in the quarterfinals. The Europeans won all their 13 matches in the VNL 2025 and enter the semifinals in a 27-match winning streak that started over a year ago, in the VNL 2024.

With international stars like opposite Paola Egonu, libero Monica De Gennaro, setter Alessia Orro and middle blocker Anna Danesi, the reigning Olympic champions are the team to beat in international volleyball right now and want to reinforce their condition with another trophy won.

“We’re excited for a great battle against Poland,” outside hitter Alice Degradi reflected. “I don’t expect this match to be anything like last year’s, so we should leave that in the past and be ready to write a new story. We’re feeling good as a team and have been playing very well in the VNL, but now we’ll face the best teams in the world.”

Poland finished the Preliminary Phase in fourth place with nine wins and three losses and showed strength to take China down in a dramatic five-set battle in the quarterfinals. After winning bronze in the last two editions of the VNL, the Polish count on the support of their home fans to take a step forward and appear in the gold medal match.

To do that, the team coached by Italian Stefano Lavarini will need to take down the best team in the world, and they know solid performances from opposite Magdalena Stysiak, middle blocker Agnieszka Korneluk and outside hitters Martyna Łukasic and Martyna Czyrniańska would be key for that to happen.

“We’ll focus on our game and do everything we can to cause an upset in the semifinals,” libero Aleksandra Szczygłowska remarked.

The teams met for the last time exactly at last year’s VNL semifinals and the recent retrospect shows great balance, with each side taking five victories in the last ten encounters.

Brazil and Japan both looking for revenge

The second-best team in the Preliminary Phase, Brazil get to the semifinals with 12 victories and just one loss after dominating Germany to a three-set victory in the quarterfinals. The Brazilians are set to make their sixth appearance in the VNL semifinals, but are still looking for their first title after taking silver in 2019, 2021 and 2022.

Head coach José ‘Zé Roberto’ Guimarães lost the team’s top scorer in the VNL, outside hitter Ana Cristina Souza, in the Finals due to an injury, but continues to count on tremendous firepower with star outside hitters Gabriela ‘Gabi’ Guimarães and Julia Bergmann, opposite Rosamaria Montibeller and middle blocker Julia Kudiess all being reliable scoring options for the team.

“We’ll need to be very patient against Japan,” Rosamaria said. “I know them very well because I’ve played in Japan in the last two seasons. They have an amazing defensive system, and we’ll need to find solutions for it. We need to continue to play as a team and push forward.”

Last year’s silver medalists Japan were third in the Preliminary Phase, getting nine wins and three losses, and returned to the semifinals after they managed to outlast Türkiye in an intense five-set battle in the quarterfinals.

Having a new coach in Turkish Ferhat Akbaş, the Japanese bet on their fast-paced playing style and the individual quality of players like outside hitter Mayu Ishikawa, opposite Yukiko Wada, setter Nanami Seki and libero Manami Kojima to get back in the gold medal match.

“We have another big challenge ahead of us in the semifinals,” outside hitter Yoshino Sato said. “We lost to Brazil 3-0 recently and we’d like to take revenge for that match and see if we’ve learned from that defeat.”

Volleyball Nations League 2025: full schedule and results

Brazilians and Japanese have met twice after last year’s semifinal duel and the South Americans prevailed on both occasions, triumphing in pool play during the Paris 2024 Olympics and in the VNL 2025 Preliminary Phase. The last ten matches show eight Brazilian victories and a pair of Japanese wins.

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