too often on a thread, France ends up giving in against Italy

The French team will not succeed in the Olympic Games-World Championships double. Thirteen months after conquering Olympus in Tokyo, the Blues cracked this Wednesday in the quarter-finals of the World Cup in Ljubljana against Italy. A match that will leave regrets, and a bit of bitterness for various reasons. In particular the aberrant formula of this competition which will have given a six-day break to the men of Andrea Giani – unheard of -, before making them chain 8^e and quarters in 48 hours, with two days of rest less than the Transalpine. Which inevitably weighed during the tie-break, too quickly dominated by the volleyball players of La Botte (6-13). And even a final hexagonal comeback – in the form of a 5-0 to return to 11-13 – was not enough to reverse the situation (12-15). Sore.

Bitterness also on a particularly questionable arbitration decision at the end of the fourth set, on a point which could have, should have allowed France to return to 22-23 instead of ending up at 21-24 and three balls set against her. Even if, on this set, as Jean Patry was going to analyze quite rightly at the microphone of the L’Equipe channel, the regrets prevailed over the bitterness: “It is played on inaccuracies on our part when we had the ball to take stock, on counter-attacks. Especially in the 4th, with these inaccuracies, we allowed them to still believe in it. We let them hope too much.This quarter-final had however started well for the teammates of Earvin Ngapeth (15 points), who won a first set however badly embarked. But as often in this competition, France bent but did not break, and accelerated as soon as the scoreboard exceeded twenty (26-24).

The Italian domination was repeated in the second set (10-12 then 19-21). Except that this time, France did not reverse the deal and the transalpine equalizer proved logical (21-25). Fortunately, the Blues quickly resumed their good habits during the next act. Italy thus led 19-16 before taking a flurry from Ngapeth in the service with a 4-0 that changed everything (20-19). And behind, Patry, top blue scorer this Wednesday with 16 points, closed the deal (25-23). France were approaching the minimum objective set by their Italian coach Andrea Giani, namely to reach the last four. Until this unfavorable arbitration decision and this failed tie-break. The winners of France will still have to be patient before hoping to adorn themselves with a first title of world champion.