EuroVolleyW: Eighth Finals bring electric matchups to Plovdiv and Belgrade

The 16 best teams of the CEV EuroVolley 2021 Women are now known as pool play was concluded on Thursday. There’s still one day before the start of the Eight Finals on Saturday, but all matchups for the duels that will happen over the next three days have already been determined.

Plovdiv will be the first to see action in the elimination round with hosts Bulgaria playing Sweden and the Netherlands meeting Germany on Saturday. The Bulgarians have been in strong form so far, winning four of their five pool matches, but will need to find a way to slow down the tournament’s top scorer, Swedish opposite Isabelle Haak, who registered 131 points already, to continue moving forward.

Sunday will be busier, with two meetings in Plovdiv and two more in Belgrade. The Bulgarian city will stage the duel between the undefeated Turkey and the Czech Republic and the meeting involving Poland and Ukraine. The second match will promote an interesting duel between opposites Magdalena Styasiak and Olesia Rykhliuk, who have scored 90 points for their teams so far.

Hosts Serbia will be in action in Belgrade on Sunday once again as the reigning EuroVolley and world champions, who are still undefeated in the tournament, face a surprising Hungary, that sneaked to the Eight Finals leaving Slovakia and Switzerland behind on Pool C. Croatia and France will also play each other at the Stark Arena on that day.

The final day of the Eight Finals will see two of the four European teams that competed at the Tokyo Olympics in action in the Serbian capital. Still unbeaten, Italy will meet Belgium, in a duel that will have the second and the fourth top scorers of the EuroVolley – Belgian Britt Herbots, with 116, and Italian Paola Egonu, with 98 - on opposite sides. The final matchup will have Russia and Belarus going against each other.

With just the elite of the tournament moving forward, the elimination round of the EuroVolley should bring even more exciting matches than the already stellar pool play did.