Berlin (AFP)
French volleyball players will face Slovenia on Thursday (5:00 p.m.) in the semi-finals of the Olympic qualification tournament in Berlin, to maintain the hope of a presence at the Olympic Games in Tokyo, while the competition in Germany offers only one only ticket for Japan.
To reach the semi-finals of an extremely tough TQO, the French won the first set against the Netherlands (25-21), enough to take second place in their group behind Bulgaria and thus eliminate the Serbs, European champions just over two months ago but who will not see Tokyo in the summer of 2020.
A second consecutive participation in the Olympic Games after Rio in 2016 is therefore still possible for Laurent Tillie's men, especially since the tournament, where only the winner will qualify for Tokyo, is now rid of his Serbian scarecrow.
European Champions 2015, the French arrived in Berlin lessened by a cascade of absent players (Thibault Rossard and Trevor Clevenot injured, Stephen Boyer for personal reason).
Thursday late afternoon the Blues will offer a beautiful reunion, since they will be opposed to the Slovenes, five months after having faced them and hardly dominated during a first Olympic qualification tournament (26-24, 25- 20, 25-23) in Poland, in a completely different context.
In Gdansk, the French had been powerless against Poland, double reigning world champion (2014, 2018), and were thus forced to go through this last TQO cleaver in Germany.
Since then, Slovenia has surfed on its Euro-2019 disputed for the most part at home and concluded in Paris on a second place behind Serbia, and ahead of France, fourth at home. Evidenced by his tie break victory against the German hosts Tuesday evening during the group stage (32-34, 25-20, 19-25, 25-21, 15-12).
Unbeaten in three matches in a less dense group (Germany, Belgium, Czech Republic) than that of France (Serbia, Bulgaria, Netherlands), Slovenia can rely on the power of its forwards / receivers Tine Urnaut and Klemen Cebulj, and his pointed Toncek Stern.
For France, Slovenia also remains a good memory since it is against this small country (2 million inhabitants) from the former Yugoslavia that the band at Earvin Ngapeth won its only European title in 2015 in Sofia.
© 2020 AFP