eliminated by Italy, the Blues stop in the quarter
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This time, the showdown was lost: two days after having dominated Japan at the end of the suspense (3-2), the French volleyball team, Olympic champion in title, yielded to the tie-break against Italy (26-24, 21-25, 25-23, 22-25, 12 -15) in the quarter-finals of the World Cup, Wednesday, September 7, in Ljubljana (Slovenia).
Thus ends, even before the last four, the dream of the Blues to win the first tricolor volleyball world champion title, the only one missing in the trophy cabinet, topped with a Euro (2015) and the Olympic gold, brought back from Tokyo last summer.
It is the second time in a row that France has missed the last four of a World Cup, since it had not passed the second group stage during the previous edition, in 2018. It is also the second time row that France does not see the semi-finals of an international competition (outside the League of Nations, won in July): it had taken the door to the Euro in September 2021 in the round of 16 (3-0) against the Czech Republic.
The Brazilian Bernardinho was on the bench. The replacement for Olympic champion Laurent Tillie suddenly resigned in March for personal reasons. He was replaced by Italian legend Andrea Giani, whose main leitmotif was to bring consistency to the Blues, so that they stop doing the roller coaster in competition, to alternate top performances and early exits from the roads. .
It failed this time. On a thread since the start of the competition, with a stunning victory against Slovenia in the pools (3-2) then this round of 16 won by forceps against Japan, the “Team Yavbou” gave in.
Italy takes revenge
This young, ambitious and talented Italy imposed its law in counter and attack, led by its 20-year-old nugget Alessandro Michieletto (14 points) and the sharp Yuri Romano (22 points), in a fairly bare Stozice Arena but acquired at the Italian cause. Many supporters, in fact, had made the trip from neighboring Italy.
The Italians had benefited from two more days of recovery, qualified on Saturday by eliminating Cuba (3-1): did that play a role? The French in any case weakened at the end of the match: while they were leading two sets to one and 14 to 12 in the fourth set, they lost the thread a little to let Italy snatch a tie-break, during which they hoped to carry out a mad remontada. Trailing 13-6, they came back two lengths (13-11), thanks to a pair of victorious blocks (counterattacks) and an attack from Earvin Ngapeth, before saving a match point but losing on the second .
The Italians, largely beaten in front of their public in Bologna in the semi-finals of the League of Nations in July by the French (3-0), took their revenge. The Blues, they return home a little earlier than expected.
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