.svg)
EuroVolley Takeaways: Finland's Men Beat Italy 🌍
The reigning world champions lost 3-2 at the PalaVela to a team that had not beaten them in 48 years. Slovenia went through in the other Turin quarter-final.
Finland had not beaten Italy in a competitive volleyball match for 48 years, and they had not reached a European Championship semi-final since 2007. Both of those ended on the night of 23 September at the PalaVela in Turin.
Finland won 3-2 (21-25, 28-26, 25-16, 19-25, 15-12) in front of more than 8,300 people, and the side they put out is the reigning world champion and the second-ranked team in the FIVB world ranking.
Slovenia beat Belgium 3-1 (25-22, 25-22, 20-25, 25-13) in the other Turin quarter-final. Italy are out of a championship they are co-hosting, and they went out at home.
Italy Never Led Again After Set One
Italy took the opening set 25-21 and were not in front of the match again. Finland answered 28-26, took the third 25-16, and Italy's fourth set only bought them a fifth, which went 15-12 the other way.
Joonas Jokela scored 28 points for Finland and Luka Marttila 22. Yuri Romano led Italy with 20, which means nobody in an Italy shirt matched even Finland's second-best scorer across five sets.
Joonas Jokela, Finland's top scorer on the night with those 28 points, speaking to the CEV after the match.
"Winning against Italy, against the world champions, in Italy, is amazing."
Finland have not played a European Championship semi-final since 2007, which is longer than most of the squad that won on 23 September has been playing senior volleyball.
Italy's Coach Blamed the Last Swing
Ferdinando De Giorgi, the head coach of Italy and a world champion as a player and as a coach, to the Italian news agency ANSA, translated here from the Italian.
"When we had to deliver the final blow, we were not there."
That is a narrow diagnosis of a wide problem. Italy lost the third set 25-16, and a nine-point set is not decided by the last swing of anything.
A team that has to win the fourth set to stay alive at home has already been beaten by more than margins, and the world champions spent the night of 23 September being one.
Forty-Eight Years Is the Number That Matters
Finland have been to one European Championship semi-final before and it was in 2007, where they finished fourth. Reaching this one means they have already equalled the best result the country has ever had in the competition.
Forty-eight years is the other number and it carries more, because it covers every senior meeting between these two countries in which anything was at stake.
Timo Tolvanen, a volleyball analyst at the Finnish public broadcaster Yle, on what the night of 23 September is worth at home.
"This is an absolute bombshell for Finnish volleyball. And also in Finland's sports history, to beat the world champion on their home court. I can't remember anything like this for quite a while. It rises to a pretty high position in my ranking at least."
He is ranking this against the whole of Finnish sport rather than against volleyball, and on the evidence of that night he is not obviously wrong to.
Sofia Sent the Other Two Through First
France and Poland had already qualified on 22 September at the Arena 8888 in Sofia, and neither dropped a set doing it. France beat Romania 3-0 (25-16, 25-19, 25-19) and Poland beat Germany 3-0 (25-23, 25-17, 25-17).
Not one of those six sets in Sofia reached 26 points. Both winners finished on exactly 75, which is the fewest a team can score and still win a three-set match, and it happened twice on the same floor in one evening.
Rok Možič scored 18 in Turin for Slovenia and Klemen Čebulj 12, against 23 from Belgium's Ferre Reggers. Belgium had the highest scorer on their own court and lost the last set 25-13.
Klemen Čebulj of Slovenia, whose 12 points were his team's third-highest on the night, in the CEV's own report.
"It's an amazing achievement, four times in a row in the EuroVolley Final Four."
Nobody else left in this tournament has reached four in a row, and Slovenia have still never won it.
Milan Settles Europe's Olympic Place
The semi-finals are at the arena in Assago on the edge of Milan on 25 September. Slovenia play Poland at five in the afternoon local time and Finland play France at nine in the evening, with the final on 26 September.
Whoever wins on 26 September takes the first place Europe sends to the Los Angeles Olympics in 2028. Finland, France and Slovenia have all qualified for the 2027 World Cup by reaching this stage, and Poland were already in it as hosts.
We expect France to reach the final, and we expect Finland to take a set off them getting there.
If Finland lose in three, the 48 years stops being the interesting thing about them and the quarter-final becomes the ceiling.
