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Slovenia Knock Serbia's Men Out of EuroVolley 🌍
The 2019 European champions lost the first two sets by 11 and 12 points at the Palavela, and the tournament that hands out Europe's first men's place at LA28 goes on without them.
Slovenia beat Serbia 3-0 (25-14, 25-13, 25-22) at the Palavela in Turin on 21 September and put them out of the men's EuroVolley in the round of 16. The winner of this championship takes the first place Europe sends to the 2028 Olympics.
The last time the two met at a European Championship was the 2019 final, and Serbia won that one 3-1. It was their sixth meeting of the summer, after a VNL match and four friendlies.
Serbia had two routes toward Los Angeles through this tournament. One was the title. The other was a top-three finish, which carries a place at the 2027 men's World Cup in Poland, and both closed at 25-22 in the third set.
Serbia Lost the First Two Sets by 23 Points
Slovenia led the first set 7-3, then 13-7, then 20-11. They opened the second 5-0 and led 16-5, and at that point Serbia's head coach Gheorghe Crețu changed almost his entire line-up, per the CEV's match report.
The changed side is the one that made a match of the third. Veljko Mašulović put Serbia ahead 9-8, Aleksandar Nedeljković's block on Jan Kozamernik levelled it at 19-19, and Slovenia won six of the last nine points.
Nik Mujanović led Slovenia with 14 points, eleven kills and three aces, while Alen Pajenk had 12, Rok Možič 11 and Kozamernik 10, five of them at the block.
Marko Ivović led Serbia with eight points.
Slovenia were the better team by a distance for two sets and the steadier one when the third got close.
Jan Kozamernik of Slovenia, speaking to the CEV after the match.
It's amazing. We are really happy that we managed to win this game like this, especially 3-0. We also wanted to save some energy for the quarterfinals. We expected a difficult game, and in the third set we saw that they can play. They came back and took the lead, but we showed character, and that's the most important thing. We want to grow from this game and improve our level compared to the previous matches. I think today we did a great job.
Crețu Left His Future to the Federation
Crețu handed the question of whether he stays to the Volleyball Federation of Serbia after the match. VolleyWeek, the Bulgarian outlet, reports that he defended his two seasons as the handover to a younger generation the federation had asked him to manage.
Nikola Jovović, the Serbia captain, called the performance "pale" and at moments "unwatchable", in VolleyWeek's translation of the Serbian coverage.
Belgium Reached Their First Quarter-Final Since 2017
Belgium beat Czechia 3-1 (20-25, 26-24, 25-14, 25-15) on the same court earlier on 21 September and play Slovenia there on 23 September at 16:00 local time. The semi-finals and the final follow on 25 and 26 September at the Unipol Forum in Assago, outside Milan.
Belgium won 15 points at the block against Czechia, and Ferre Reggers scored 24, four of them with blocks of his own, the most by any player on either court in Turin that day.
