Paris (AFP)

Last call for Tokyo: French volleyball players slaughter their last card to compete in the JO-2020, in a qualification tournament extremely high in Berlin from Sunday, with notably the European champions of Serbia, and only one ticket in play.

The band to Earvin Ngapeth, European champion in 2015, faces an immense challenge in the German capital: to win the last European ticket still available for Japan this summer, while Russia, Poland and Italy , as well as Brazil, Argentina and the United States, have already validated the round trip.

In front of them, very heavy prospect: Serbia, European champion 2019 and fourth in the World-2018, Slovenia, vice-champion of Europe 2015 and 2019, or Germany, vice-champion of Europe 2017.

The trouble will start from the group stage, with Serbia, which will rely on the strong men of the continental coronation - Aleksandar Atanasijevic, Uros Kovacevic, Marko Podrascanin and Srecko Lisinac - Bulgaria and the Netherlands, and only two places to enter the semi-finals.

"The three teams are really very physical, with three of the top five in the world, whether Atanasijevic, Nimir Abdel-Aziz (Netherlands) or Tsvetan Sokolov (Bulgaria). They have such quality and such firepower that they alone fire the whole team, "warns French coach Laurent Tillie.

France arrives in Berlin lessened: its sharp Stephen Boyer, revelation and best scorer of Euro-2019, gave up for personal reason, two of its attackers / receivers, Trevor Clévenot and Thibault Rossard, are injured and have forfeited, and Julien Lyneel is still suffering from the back.

- "Not all of our weapons" -

"The players were exhausted, with a lot of sores, pain, injuries. We patched up and we tried to bring them up to level physically," said Tillie.

In the key position of sharp, it is Jean Patry, author of a good start to the season with his club of Latina in Italy who will have the heavy load to replace Boyer.

"We don't have all our weapons, and when we arrive at a tournament with this level, it's a little frustrating. But that's how it is, and maybe the other teams are the same," slides the breeder.

"We are trying to take some pressure off. We do not have all of our weapons, but we will have great determination. I think that the mental aspect and the physical freshness will be important," he insists.

In the event of failure, the reconstruction will go through the European Championships 2021 and 2023 and the World Cup-2022, to prepare for the Olympics-2024 in Paris, for which qualification is guaranteed as a host country.

"Beyond the image, there would be a great frustration for the whole group. It is an investment of four years, we kept the players to perform and qualify, at the expense of the holidays, the rest. would be a big disappointment and since Rio we think of going to Tokyo ", estimates Tillie who does not want to think of an elimination.

French volleyball players have participated in only four of the fourteen editions of the Olympic Games: in 1988 in Seoul, in 1992 in Barcelona, ​​in 2004 in Athens and in 2016 in Rio, and have never been on the podium.

© 2020 AFP