Ljubljana (AFP)
From surprise to achievement: Slovenia reached the final of Euro-2019 volleyball by winning Thursday at home in Ljubljana against Poles, double world champions in title (2014 and 2018), and will try to win a first international trophy Sunday.
The players of Alberto Giuliani have won 3 sets to 1 (25-23, 24-26, 25-11, 25-23) and will play Sunday in Paris the final of the European Championship against France or Serbia, which fight Friday night for the second half.
At home in the Stozice Arena, the Slovenians recorded a defeat inconsequential in the first round, before staging the exploits from the knockout stage, leaving Bulgaria in 8th (3-1), Russia, holding the title, in quarter (3-1), and finally Poland in half.
Thursday, in a meeting of great intensity, the two teams were shot for blows, without ever making a big difference.
The end of the first run missed by Wilfredo Leon, a Polish naturalized Cuban and considered as the best player in the world, weighed heavily in the balance in the end.
At one set everywhere, Poland experienced a huge air hole in the middle of the third inning, allowing Slovenians to ignite their audience. They closed the case in two hours and seven minutes of play, on a new fault in the service of Michal Kubiak.
Tine Urnaut at the forefront of the Slovenian attack and striker-receiver Klemen Cebulj were the main winners, scoring 18 and 15 points respectively.
Opposite, Leon's 22 points (including 18 on the second, third and fourth innings) were not enough to go to the final, a little left alone by the attacker-receiver of Dawid Konarski (only 9 points).
The Slovenes were carried by the 11,425 spectators massed in the hall in Ljubljana. In August, they lost 3 sets to 1 in Gdansk against Poland in the Olympic qualifying tournament, missing the ticket for Tokyo-2020.
In her history, she played in only one final of a European Championship, lost in 2015 in Sofia against France.
© 2019 AFP