Serbia vs Czechia and Belgium vs Poland to battle for the last two spots in quarters

Two more spots in the EuroVolley 2023 - Men quarter-finals are at stake in Sunday's eight-final games in Bari. In the race for tickets to the last eight, the 2019 EuroVolley champions, Serbia, will take on Czechia and the VNL 2023 winners, Poland, will face Belgium.

Serbia and Czechia will be the first teams to enter the court at Palaflorio in Bari on Sunday evening 18:00 CEST. It will be only the third match-up between these two teams (excluding predecessors) at the European Championships - both previous encounters were won by Serbia. Back in 2009 these teams met in the first group phase in Istanbul and Serbia won 3-0, once 10 years later - in 2019 - the teams met like today in the eight-finals with Serbia winning 3-0 in Antwerp on their way for the EuroVolley crown. 

Serbia finished 2nd in Pool A, suffering a straight-set defeat only to the hosts, Italy. But their aspirations are far higher than this stage of competition as they are regulars in the EuroVolley last four, including being a top-finisher in 2011 and 2019. Their long-time leader and bombardier Uros Kovacevic hasn't appeared on the court yet at this edition of EuroVolley, but the team hopes to use his service during the knockout stage. So far, Pavle Peric has become the best scorer of the team under the guidance of Igor Kolakovic, with 54 points to his name.

On the other side, Czechia finished 3rd in Pool C, being defeated by Poland and the Netherlands. Czechia made it into the top eight in two of their previous three European Championship participations (seventh in 2017, eighth in 2021). Will they be able to repeat this feat? Definitely, Lukas Vasina will be their key player, he is Czechia's leading points scorer at EuroVolley 2023 on 58 points. He was also their leading scorer at EuroVolley 2021 (104 points). The eight-final game between Serbia and Czechia will start at 18:00 CEST.

In the last eight-final encounter, unbeaten Poland, who are current FIVB World Ranking leaders and winners of the VNL 2023, will face Belgium. The two teams met four times at the European Championships. Poland won three of the previous meetings (including the pool phase victory of Poland at EuroVolley 2021), Belgium won one. The only Belgium victory over Poland was back in 2007 and, actually, it was the only time that Belgium upset Poland at a major international tournament. 

After winning the VNL for the first time this summer, Poland aim to regain the European crown. The White-and-Reds can boast a cabinet packed with numerous medals. However, they claimed EuroVolley gold only once, back in 2009. In the last two editions, they finished EuroVolley with bronze medals around their neck (in Paris and Katowice). Poland won Pool C, dropping only one set on their way to the Netherlands. An interesting fact is that Poland has won 23 of their last 26 matches in the EuroVolley. Their three defeats in this run were all against the same opponent: Slovenia (eight-finals in 2017, and semi-finals in 2019 and 2021). So far, the leading point scorer of star-studded team Poland is Łukasz Kaczmarek, who tallied 47 points. But the power of Poland's attack is balanced in between the squad that includes Kamil Semeniuk, Wilfredo Leon, Aleksander Śliwka, Bartosz Bednorz, Tomasz Fornal and Bartosz Kurek, who seems to be kept by the team for the decisive matches.

Belgium, who finished 4th in Pool A, with a record of two wins (against Estonia and Switzerland) has a chance to be among the last eight at EuroVolley for the first time since 2017. Ferre Reggers is the leading points scorer in the Final Round at EuroVolley 2023 on 92 points. It matches the exact tally of Belgium's top scorer at EuroVolley 2021 Sam Deroo (on 92), who also shows his strength in Italy these days. Poland and Belgium will start their battle for a spot in the quarter-finals at 21:00 CEST.