Serbia and Poland snatch the last two quarterfinal spots

After a three-day eight-finals stage played in Varna and Bari, on Sunday two thrilling games, played in the capital city of Puglia in Italy , determined the last two quarterfinalists of the EuroVolley 2023 - Men. Serbia and Poland defeated Czechia and Belgium, respectively, to book their spots in the last eight. On Tuesday they will lock horns again. Two years ago, these two teams fought for a bronze medal in Katowice, but this year only one of them will progress to the semifinals.

Serbia vs Czechia 3-0 (25-21, 26-24, 25-21)

The teams of Serbia and Czechia opened the last day of the eight-finals. Both teams were determined to show their best Volleyball in the battle for the highly-coveted spot in the quarterfinals. However, Serbia called in the big guns, starting the game with Aleksandar Atanasijević, who, along with Pavle Perić played absolutely excellent in this match-up, making the biggest difference on the court. 

The team under the guidance of coach Igor Kolaković proved a way better in the opener, jumping to 16-10 and, despite slight problems - especially in the receptions - closed the first set at 25-21. Vuk Todorovic, who is on playmaking duty, perfectly distributed the balls to his colleagues, and the Serbian team enjoyed 64% success in attack. It's worth noticing that Czechia was also very successful in this element (62%), but their own mistakes cost them a lot. It motivated Czechia to raise their level of their game even higher to keep the pace with their more experienced and decorated rival. Josef Polak and Marek Sotola were strong points in the squad of Jiri Novak, but despite the fierce fight, Serbia prevailed also in the second set (26-24), when Atanasijević had as many as 7 killing spikes. The 2019 EuroVolley champions were determined to make it a straight-set win, keeping the excellent level in the third - and last - set, showing the strength of their team. Aleksandar Atanasijević topped the scorers' chart with 14 points, Pavle Perić was only one point behind his teammate.

Poland vs Belgium 3-1 (25-16, 25-17, 23-25, 25-22)

Poland was a clear pre-favourite of the last eight-final game, but the Belgian Red Dragons didn't make it an easy job for the world ranking leaders. Although the first two sets were business as usual for the White-and-Reds, Belgium stood up, winning the third set. Eventually, Poland earned a 3-1 win to book the last ticket to the quarterfinals. 

At the beginning of the game, the bronze medalists of the last two editions of EuroVolley dominated on the court. Poland fired 5 killing blocks only in the opener - two of them belonged to Jakub Kochanowski, who was the second Poland's top scorer, behind Aleksander Śliwka (6 points) in the opener, won easily by the White-and-Reds 25-16. Poland kept the momentum, kicking off the second part with a 5-0 lead. Although Belgium tried to come back, reducing the gap to two points (12-10), their efforts were not enough against the 2023 VNL winners, who built a wall above the net with 6 killing stuffs (including 3 from Łukasz Kamczarek) and prevailed in this set 25-17. However, the third set looked totally different after competitive, Belgium found an answer to Poland's prime plays. Powered by Mathijs Desmet (6 points in this set) and Woute D'Heer, they took a lead in the middle of the set and maintained a slight advantage in the decisive part of the set, closing it 25-23. Poland opened the fourth part better, but Belgium fought hard, making it a point-by-point race until 21-21. Then the block again became Poland's powerful weapon and the team around coach Nikola Grbić sealed the deal. Three players, Aleksander Śliwka,  Łukasz Kaczmarek and Mathijs Desmet, produced a match-high of 16 points.