Nantes (AFP)

An exceptional demonstration to reach the last square: in a Hall XXL in merger, the French volleyball players signed Tuesday in Nantes a huge performance by ridiculing the Italians (3-0), vice-Olympic champions of Rio-2016, to see the halves of "their" Euro.

After this success 25-16, 27-25, 25-14, the French will face Friday in Paris Serbia, who dominated Ukraine in five sets, for a place in the final.

"It's a game worth its weight in peanuts, for the past, for the future, but especially for ourselves, and for us, we are good, we are ready, we are a collective especially. there and we will live intensely this fucking match! ", had launched the French coach Laurent Tillie in his talk broadcast by the channel L'Equipe.

He probably did not think that the case would be folded without losing the least set, in less than an hour and a half, with a demonstration as France has rarely offered to rivals transalpine, groggy and unresolved.

In recent years, Nantes has often been successful in the French teams, whether handball experts at the World-2017, who have passed for the first round before their coronation, or handballers for their main tour of Europe. 2018 on the road to the double World-2017 / Euro-2018.

Earvin Ngapeth, Benjamin Toniutti, Stéphen Boyer and Company have continued this tradition, offering to the 7,025 spectators a start of exceptional match, as they have become accustomed since the beginning of the competition, smothering Italian stars, including Ivan Zaytsev left at zero point.

Stéphen Boyer, just 23 years old, confirmed in a game of great intensity the extent of his talent, with three aces at the end of the first round after having managed almost everything he tried at the tip of the attack.

And he put a layer in the third set chaining the aces (9 in total in the match) to give a dimension totally crazy to the feat of the Blues, in a football stadium atmosphere, that La Beaujoire neighboring Nantes has had to appreciate. He was the best man of the game by far, with 25 points in total, winning his distance duel with Zaytsev fully transparent on Tuesday.

"I had rarely seen that in regularity, he was bluffing, being ultra-lucid, he was just phenomenal, it shows his investment and his desire to go all together. crazy, "Julien Lyneel praised after the meeting.

- First objective achieved -

The beginning of the second set looked like the first, but a small fault here, a small mistake by then allowed the Italians to come back and get two sets of balls (24-22). But Zaytsev offered the sleeve to the Blues.

This success is part of the great exploits of French volleyball, especially since they had already beaten Italy and its stars Osmany Juantorena, Ivan Zaytsev and Simone Giannelli, during the group stage of the Euro, to Montpellier there are six days and it is always very difficult to beat the same opponent twice in a competition.

This qualification for the semi-finals of the Euro is a first goal achieved for Laurent Tillie's Bleus, who had three failures in the last three major leagues: 9th at the Olympic Games in 2016, 9th at Euro-2017 and 7th at the World Cup-2018.

Joining Bercy, they offer the opportunity to mount a podium at home, to imitate the other French collective sports that have hosted an international competition in recent years, with the reference of the hand.

For French volleyball, which faces strong competition from other team sports - football, rugby, handball, basketball - the presence of the Blues in the last four was a necessary condition to make this competition a success not only sporting but also popular.

© 2019 AFP