Poland is bidding to win their first Males’s European Volleyball Championship since 2009, primarily based on the early levels of the 2023 occasion in Italy, Bulgaria, North Macedonia, and Israel.
In what has been a dominant begin to the competitors, Poland gained all its opening 4 matches in Pool C, with victories coming in opposition to the Netherlands, Czech Republic, North Macedonia, Montenegro, and Denmark.
Poland Now Favourites to Go All of the Method
Heading into the spherical of 16, Poland is the +200 favourite within the on-line betting for the event. In the event that they proceed to provide the identical degree of efficiency as they did within the group stage, these odds are going to look nice on the finish of the competitors. It can even be their second main success of the 12 months after profitable the Volleyball Nations League again in July.
Lukasz Kaczmarek leads the best way in scoring for Poland. He has recorded 31 factors, with a set common of 4.43. Marcin Janusz has additionally impressed within the event, as he’s third within the setter rating with an effectivity of 57.97%. That’s solely bettered by Spain’s Ruben Lorente Camacho and North Macedonia’s Filip Despotovski.
Poland will face Belgium within the final 16 as they give the impression of being to e book their spot within the quarterfinals. That recreation will happen in Bari, Italy. Belgium completed fourth in Pool A, with a 3-1 success in opposition to Estonia serving to them to safe their place within the knockout levels.
Victory within the European Volleyball Championship will assist Poland cement their first-place place within the FIVB world rankings. It can even be an enormous enhance to them forward of the Olympics in France in 2024. The final time they gained the gold medal on the Olympics was in Montreal, Canada in 1976.
Hosts Italy Lead the Problem Towards Poland
Italy, who’re third behind Poland and america respectively on the planet rankings will likely be hoping they will make house benefit rely within the knockout levels of the European Volleyball Championship. The defending champions have appeared robust within the group levels, ending in first place in Pool A. They didn’t drop a set of their opening 4 matches.
Italy 🇮🇹 rock the #EuroVolleyM stage in Ancona! 💥 Switzerland 🇨🇭 spare no efforts, however @YuriRomano17 and the Azzurri appear to be unstoppable hammering factors like this one! 🔨
Expertise #EuroVolley following all video games dwell on https://t.co/35InljpTyP 📺#Volleyball pic.twitter.com/kBKKnSk31U
— European Volleyball (@CEVolleyball) September 4, 2023
Yuri Romano has led the Italian workforce in scoring with 52 factors. He’s averaging 4.33 per set on this competitors. Simone Giannelli has additionally stood out for the hosts. The Italian has a 57.45% effectivity within the setter rating.
Italy is chasing their eighth European title this 12 months. They defeated Slovenia 3-2 within the last in 2021 in what was a intently contested recreation. It was the eleventh time within the final 17 renewals that Italy had reached the ultimate of the boys’s event.
The world champions are on target to face Poland within the last in Rome on September 16. Ought to the highest two seeds get there, it should arrange a mouth-watering encounter between the perfect two groups in Europe.
The highest three groups from this 12 months’s European Volleyball Championship will qualify for the 2025 World Volleyball Championship, so there’s a lot at stake within the latter levels of this 12 months’s event for the 16 groups nonetheless concerned.