Paris (AFP)
The French volleyball players achieved a great performance by beating Belgium, the 11th nation in the world, 3 sets to 1 (27-25, 13-25, 25-19, 25-20) Thursday night in Belgrade and will face Croatia in the round of 16 on Sunday. Euro-2021 final.
Thursday night in Belgrade, the French played a full match against a Belgian team which took 9th place in the recent League of Nations (8 wins, 7 losses), while the French are confined to the lower level in the Golden League.
It was finally on an attack by one of their leaders, Lucille Gicquel, that the Blue ended the meeting in the 4th set, which they managed to return (25-20) while the Belgians had detached themselves ( 14-8).
"It's amazing. We just wanted to come out on the pitch with a lot of energy. We had good times and more difficult times, but we won in the end. I'm very proud of my team", s 'is delighted the captain of the Bleues, Héléna Cazaute.
This prestigious success allows the French to complete the first round with three victories against Azerbaijan (3-1), Bosnia-Herzegovina (3-0) and Belgium (3-1), and two defeats against Serbia ( 3-0) and Russia (3-1).
The players of Emile Rousseaux, assured before the meeting to qualify for the first time since 2013 for the knockout phase of a continental tournament, take the opportunity above all to finish this 1st round in 3rd place in their group, while 4th place guaranteed them a very complicated round of 16 against Italy, contender for the podium.
With this 3rd place in their group, they will face Croatia, finalist in the Golden League last June, for a place in the quarter-finals, stage of the competition that the French women's team had reached in 2013 (defeat against Belgium at the tie-break).
© 2021 AFP