The first round of the Volleyball Nations League 2024 Finals is set to feature four exciting duels next week in Łódź, Poland, including a highly-anticipated encounter between reigning world champions Italy and Olympic champions France.
VNL 2024
World and Olympic champions to clash at VNL quarterfinals
Slovenia vs. Argentina, Poland vs. Brazil and Japan vs. Canada are the other duels confirmed at the conclusion of the Preliminary Phase
Published 08:41, 23 Jun 2024
With outside hitter Mattia Bottolo on the court, Italy topped Türkiye in the final day of the Preliminary Phase
- Watch Volleyball Nations League 2024 live on VBTV
Scheduled to take place on June 27 and 28, the quarterfinals of the men’s tournament will have the top team in the Preliminary Phase, Slovenia, meeting Tokyo Olympic medalists Argentina, defending champions Poland battling 2021 winners Brazil and last year’s bronze medalists Japan facing Olympic-bound Canada.
Japanese and Canadians will open the Finals, playing on Thursday, at 17:00 local time (15:00 GMT), with Polish and Brazilians dueling three hours later. On Friday, the schedule repeats, with Italians and French meeting first and Slovenians and Argentineans battling at 20:00 local time (18:00 GMT).
SEE YOU AT THE MEN’S VNL FINALS! 🔥
— Volleyball World (@volleyballworld) June 24, 2024
These 8 teams will compete from June 27-30 in Łódź, Poland 🇹🇭 to battle for VNL glory!
🤯 QUARTERFINALS:
June 27
Japan 🇯🇵 🆚 🇨🇦 Canada
Poland 🇵🇱 🆚 🇧🇷 Brazil
June 28
Italy 🇮🇹 🆚 🇫🇷 France
Slovenia 🇸🇮 🆚 🇦🇷
🤯 SEMIFINALS: June 29
🏆… pic.twitter.com/kdrCXuU3WI
The last day of the VNL 2024 Preliminary Phase, which had three matches in Manila, the Philippines, and another three in Ljubljana, Slovenia, started with six national teams confirmed in the VNL Finals and five competing for the remaining two spots.
Brazil secured their spot in the Finals despite their 3-2 (25-23, 27-29, 13-25, 25-19, 18-16) to France in Manila as the point earned with the result was enough to keep them inside the qualification zone regardless of the other results of the day with six wins and 21 points.
With 29 points (25 kills, three aces, one block), French opposite Théo Faure was the match’s top scorer. On the Brazilian side, Olympic champion outside hitter Ricardo Lucarelli and opposite Alan de Souza, with 18 and 15 points, respectively, were the most productive players.
Fellow South Americans Argentina, who ended the Preliminary Phase with six wins and 18 points, didn’t get on the court on Sunday, but were still able to move forward as the three teams that could pass them, Cuba, Serbia and the United States, dropped their matches to Poland, Slovenia and Japan, respectively.
Slovenia advance in first place
Also on Sunday, Slovenia confirmed the top seed for the quarterfinals with a dramatic 3-2 (25-13, 25-27, 25-14, 22-25, 15-12) victory over Serbia in Ljubljana. With that, they were the only team to end the Preliminary Phase with 11 wins.
Four Slovenian players reached double digits in scoring in the match - opposite Tonček Štern (22), outside hitters Tine Urnaut (17) and Klemen Čebulj (16) and middle blocker Sašo Štalekar (13). Serbia had the match's top scorer in opposite Aleksandar Atanasijević, who left the court with 25 points.
Despite the defeat, the Serbians also had reason to celebrate as they secured the final spot at the Paris Olympics via the FIVB World Rankings and will return to the Games for the first time since London 2012.
On Wednesday, the Drawing of Lots for the Paris Olympics will take place. The event will be held in Łódź, Poland, the host city of the VNL Finals, at 18:00 local time (16:00 GMT) – click here to watch it live.
The first two days of the VNL Finals will be reserved for the quarterfinals, with the semifinals taking place on Saturday, June 29, and the medal matches happening on Sunday, June 30.
Cuba (ninth), Serbia (tenth), Germany (11th), the USA (12th), the Netherlands (13th), Bulgaria (14th), Iran (15th) and Türkiye (16th) were eliminated at the conclusion of the Preliminary Phase and won’t appear in the Finals.
