The French team, reigning Olympic champion, dominated Brazil 3 sets to 2, Sunday in Manila, for its last group meeting and will challenge Italy in the quarter-final of the Volleyball Nations League.
The Blues, sure of participating in the Final 8 in Lodz, were waiting to find out their opponent. Having finished 6th in the standings, they will face the 3rd, namely the Italians, reigning world champions, on Friday. A big piece for the final rehearsal before the Paris Games (July 26-August 11).
In the meantime, overthrown the day before by Japan in five sets, this time they prevailed at the last minute (25-23, 27-29, 13-25, 25-19, 18-16) against the Brazilians.
Facing the team led by Bernardinho, short-lived France coach, the winners of the event in 2022 were still deprived of their star Earvin Ngapeth who is treating a muscle injury and could make his timely return to competition next week .
If they concluded the first round, which got off to a bad start, with a magnificent smash from Théo Faure, author of 29 points, the Tricolores were also able to count on Kévin Tillie.
Then left behind again in the second set, they managed to come back to the score before giving in on the Brazilians’ fourth set point.
The third set was one-sided in favor of the Canarinhos but the French raised their level to take the next set.
In the decisive tie-break, Andrea Giani’s men, trailing 13-10, reversed the trend and concluded on their fourth match point.
