León King leads Polish Olympic revenge against France

Just 20 days before the one-year anniversary of their encounter in the gold medal match of the Paris 2024 Olympics, France and Poland met again on Sunday, on the last day of the Volleyball Nations League 2025 Preliminary Phase, this time with a different outcome.

Supported by over 10,000 fans who packed the Ergo Arena, in Gdańsk, Poland got revenge for their defeat in the French capital 11 months ago and triumphed 3-2 (32-30, 20-25, 25-20, 23-25, 15-12), heading to the VNL Finals in ten days in good form.

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Despite the victory, the Polish ended the VNL Preliminary Phase in fifth place, with eight wins and 23 points, and will play fourth-placed Japan in the quarterfinals. Defending champions France ranked third, with eight wins and 24 points, and will have sixth-placed Slovenia in their way to the semifinals.

Twelve players (five Polish and seven French) who were on the court at the South Paris Arena last August were part of Sunday’s encounter in Gdańsk and two of them, Polish outside hitter Wilfredo León and French opposite Théo Faure, engaged in an exciting scoring battle, which ended with the Polish superstar tallying 30 points (24 kills, three blocks, three aces) and the talented French registering 28 (25 kills, two aces, one block).

Besides León, also had productive performances on the Polish side opposite Kewin Sasak, who scored 14 points, and middle blockers Jakub Kochanowski and Jakub Novak and outside hitter Tomasz Fornal, who added ten each.

“I wasn’t in Paris, but maybe we can take this match as a revenge in some ways,” Sasak reflected. “It’s always tough against them, but in the end we won and I’m really happy about that. It’s always amazing to play with this jersey here in Gdańsk.”

For France, outside hitters Mathis Henno and Yacine Louati, with 17 and 13 points, respectively, and middle blocker Mousse Gueye, with 11, contributed to Faure’s efforts.

“To me, the most important thing was how we played as a team,” Gueye reacted. “I thought we played really well, but today Poland were better than us. Now we go back home and work on it for the Finals.”

Volleyball Nations League 2025: full schedule and results

Before the repeat of the last Olympic final, two matches were held during the day in Gdańsk, with China beating Cuba 3-2 (20-25, 25-23, 15-25, 25-22, 19-17) and Iran defeating Bulgaria 3-0 (25-17, 25-17, 25-16).

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