One step away from triumph: Russian volleyball players bounced back from the score 0: 2, but lost to the French in the final of the Games

The performance of the Russian national team at the Tokyo Olympics could be considered successful even before the start of the final match of the tournament.

Despite the third place in the ranking of the International Volleyball Federation, the team showed not the most impressive results at the largest international competitions.

Yes, in 2017 the team celebrated success at the European Championships, but at the world championships it has not reached the decisive stage since 2002.

In Tokyo, Tuomas Sammelvuo's wards were not only able to qualify for the final, but also twice dealt with the current triumphant World Cup and League of Nations - Brazil.

But in order to achieve more and win the gold of the Games for the second time in nine years, it was necessary to defeat an extremely inconvenient opponent - France, which had already beaten the domestic team in the group stage.

It is rather difficult to unequivocally assess the importance of that victory of the tricolors. Nevertheless, by that time, the Russians had three victories in a row, including over the same Brazilians, and practically guaranteed themselves an exit to the playoffs. In addition to the future finalists, they had a meeting with the main outsider of the sextet - Tunisia, which was not supposed to be a serious test. Perhaps this prevented Maxim Mikhailov and company from getting ready for the match with France, which ended not in their favor. Laurent Thiyy's team won in four games and became the owner of the last ticket to the quarterfinals.

But there the French really opened up and earned the title of the main sensation of the championship.

First, in a tense five-set confrontation, they dealt with the favorites - the Poles, and then left no chance for the future bronze medalists of the Tokyo Games - the Argentines.

Only three games were enough for them to win, and in the second they allowed their opponents to score only 19 points.

In the semifinals with the Brazilians, Sammelvuo's charges played the first set very unsuccessfully and managed to "wake up" only in the second, but this time this did not happen.

The Russians immediately joined the game and relatively quickly managed to break away from the French.

Maxim Mikhailov attacked great, completing the segment with six points, and the effectiveness of Yegor Klyuka and Ivan Yakovlev was admirable - on average, three of their four hits brought the team points.

The Russians maintained a comfortable advantage right up to the very end, but at 22:18 they suddenly had problems. Seven of the next eight points remained with the French, who managed to turn the tide of an unsuccessful set. The main characters were the irrepressible Erwin Ngapeth, who distinguished himself three times from the game, as well as Antoine Brizard, whose cannon serve brought the team two more points. The opponents were also helped by the domestic volleyball players themselves, who received a fine for a spade.

Apparently, the fiasco at the end of the first set seriously hit the psychology of Sammelvuo's charges, who looked confused throughout the second. Suddenly, the serve stopped completely, which was expressed not only in the abundance of attacks at the first pace among the French, but also in banal blunders. Already by the middle of the game, the Russians had ten errors in the kick-off - four more than the opponent's.

Moreover, France began not only to raise everything below, but also to realize almost every chance. Ngapet literally did not notice the Russian bloc, "shooting" both along the line and diagonally. In the first two games, he scored 17 points - more than a third of the team's total score at that time and exactly as much as the national team managed to put in the piggy bank in the second game. Tiye's wards took the lead 2-0, and the champions of the 2012 Games were one step away from the fiasco.

The Russians needed to save the day, but in the first half of the third game there was no sign of a turning point. They were still in a groggy state and gradually allowed their opponents to come off by three points. It might seem that the fight in the final would not work, but the domestic volleyball players were still able to turn on. Mikhailov continued to lead the team, added Kluk to the activity, and Ilyas Kurkaev came to the rescue. Blocking Lokomotiv scored four points. In addition, Ngapet also got nervous, making two gross mistakes at the decisive moment - 25:21.

This local success inspired Russian volleyball players, who played the fourth game much more confidently. Having survived the starting spurt of the opponents, they stepped forward and no longer let go of the thread of the game. The French really missed Ngapeth, who went into the shadows, and performed the first accurate blow only in the 24th minute - by this time the tricolors were inferior to 17:19. Barthelemy Chinenese and Trevor Cleveno tried to compensate for his "absence", but they failed to fully implement this. Kluka continued to dominate the court and became the protagonist of the national team's comeback.

Finally, the hope of the French to avoid the decisive fifth set was crossed out by Kevin Tiyi.

When the score was 23:21 in favor of the opponent, the son of the head coach first appeared on the court and went to perform the most important serve.

However, he struck too unsuccessfully, and the ball bounced off the net went out-of-bounds.

The Russians had only one set point to restore parity and gain mental superiority.

Surely at this moment, many remembered the final of the 2012 Olympics in London, when the Russian national team miraculously bounced back from the score 0: 2 in the confrontation with Brazil and won gold.

And the debut only strengthened the belief that a similar thing could happen nine years later.

The French suffered a long setback at the end of the previous set and lost four points in a row.

Ngapet, who came to his senses, helped to reduce the gap a little, but Mikhailov began to answer him.

Over time, the pendulum swung towards the French team. They began to get the balls off the floor over and over again, and even again they began to pass the attacks at the first pace. So the tricolors first restored parity, and then took the lead. All the same Ngapet again became an insoluble problem for the Russian blockers, and even Jean Patri came to the rescue. The winger scored from the game, and then played an ace - the eighth for his team in the match - 13:11.

The Russians immediately closed the gap, but could not prevent the French from earning championship balls. Brizar's fantastically unexpected discount caught both block and safety net by surprise. And already in the next rally Mikhailov made an offensive blunder when trying to "draw" a diagonal. The triumph of Tiye's charges was briefly interrupted by Sammelvuo, who requested a "challenge", but there was no trace of touching the net from the opponent's side. The Russian national team lost and won silver at the Games in Tokyo - 23:25, 17:25, 25:21, 25:21, 12:15.