France overthrows Slovenia and joins the 8th finals

The Blues, reigning Olympic champions, erased three match points in the fourth set, including one after video refereeing, an attack by Earvin Ngapeth foul finally touched with the fingertips by the opposing counter. Winners (25-21, 22-25, 23-25, 34-32 and 15-7) of the finalist of the last Euro, they are therefore at the top of pool D (5 pts against 4 for Slovenia and 3 for Germany) before facing Cameroon (0 pt). Cameroonian volleyball players should be given as few points as possible in order, if possible, to meet a more affordable opponent a priori in the round of 16. It will always be in Ljubljana or Gliwice in Poland.

In the meantime, they again showed their capacity for resilience during this leading test, like Friday against the Germans, where they saved four set points in the fourth set. In the wake of its Olympic title obtained in Tokyo last summer, the “Team Yavbou” seems almost unsinkable since the arrival as coach of the Italian Andrea Giani after the resignation of the Brazilian Bernardinho for personal reasons at the end of March. Under the Italian legend, they have now won 14 of their 17 matches played and the Nations League in July.

29 pts for Ngapeth

The Blues almost lost that of Sunday, therefore, in this fourth set where they ended up snatching, in the din and an unbreathable atmosphere, the tie-break on their seventh set point thanks to a winning attack from their star, Earvin Ngapeth (29 points in total). “We showed that we have character. This win is really important.”welcomed Ngapeth after the match at the microphone of La chain L’Équipe. “It was hard to hold on with such pressure from the public. And Slovenia are really a great team., greeted his teammate Yacine Louati, still with the match broadcaster. The other key player in this fourth set is Kévin Tillie, who recently returned from injury and entered the middle of the third set as a receiver-attacker to replace Trévor Clévenot, who failed in attack. The son of former coach Laurent Tillie scored five points in this fourth set (9 in total). Ngapeth, he continued his momentum in the tie-break where the Blues quickly broke away (8-4 on an ace from the pointed Jean Patry) against the Slovenians, who were perhaps a little stunned to have passed if close to victory.

The approximately 12,000 Slovenian supporters filling the Stozice Arena have gradually made much less noise. Before that, the match had started well for the Blues, who seemed to have registered the criticism formulated by Giani despite the victory against Germany: they were much more aggressive in defense. Like the libero Jenia Grebennikov on the first set ball, concluded while touching by Earvin Ngapeth, who deposited the ball behind the Slovenian counter. Antoine Brizard and Earvin Ngapeth set the target on serve (two aces at the end of the innings). But the hosts then raised their level, especially in attack and service, when the French made too many errors in their engagement (nine faults in this second round). In the third set, they also failed to find the solution against the opposing block. Before managing to overthrow Slovenia and turn off the Stozice Arena.