Narrowly but it passes for the Blues at the Volleyball World Cup.

The France team won in the tie-break against Slovenia in its overheated room to qualify for the round of 16 in its second group match, Sunday in Ljubljana.

The reigning Olympic champions erased three match points in the fourth set, including one after video refereeing, an attack by Earvin Ngapeth foul finally touched with the fingertips by the opposing counter.

Winners (25-21, 22-25, 23-25, 34-32 and 15-7) of the finalist of the last Euro, they are therefore at the top of pool D (5 points against 4 for Slovenia and 3 for Germany) before facing Cameroon (0 points).

An unsinkable team

Against Slovenia, the Blues again showed their capacity for resilience during this first-rate test, like Friday against the Germans, where they saved four set points in the fourth set.

In the wake of its Olympic title obtained in Tokyo last summer, “Team Yavbou” seems almost unsinkable since the arrival as coach of the Italian Andrea Giani after the resignation of the Brazilian Bernardinho for personal reasons at the end of March.

Under the Italian legend, they have now won 14 of their 17 games played and the Nations League in July.

The Blues almost lost that of Sunday, in this fourth set where they ended up snatching, in the din and an unbreathable atmosphere, the tie-break on their seventh set point thanks to a winning attack from their star, Earvin Ngapeth ( 29 points in total).

Blues more aggressive in defense

The other key player in this fourth set is Kévin Tillie, who recently returned from injury and entered the middle of the third set as a receiver-attacker to replace Trévor Clévenot, who failed in attack.

The son of former coach Laurent Tillie scored five points in this fourth set (9 in total).

Ngapeth, he continued his momentum in the tie-break where the Blues quickly broke away (8-4 on an ace from the pointed Jean Patry) against the Slovenians, who were perhaps a little stunned to have passed if close to victory.

Before that, the game had started well for the French, who seemed to have registered the criticisms formulated by Giani despite the victory against Germany: they were much more aggressive in defense.

Like the libero Jenia Grebennikov on the first set ball, concluded while touching by Earvin Ngapeth, who deposited the ball behind the Slovenian counter.

Antoine Brizard and Earvin Ngapeth set the target on serve (two aces at the end of the innings).

But the hosts then raised their level, especially in attack and service, when the French made too many errors in their engagement (nine faults in this second round).

In the third set, they also failed to find the solution against the opposing block.

Before succeeding in overthrowing Slovenia and extinguishing the Stozice Arena.

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