EuroVolleyW 2023: Eight-Finals in Firenze, France-Romania and Italy-Spain

EuroVolley 2023 elimination games starting tonight in Firenze, with the first two games of Eight-Finals at Palazzo Wanny. The top four teams of Pool B will face top four teams of Pool D, and after Eight-Finals and Quarter-Finals only two teams will reach Belgian Capital Brussels for EuroVolley Semifinals starting next 1st September.

The two first Eight-Finals will take place today at Palazzo Wanny in Firenze, starting from 18 with France (second classified in Pool D in Tallinn, Estonia) facing Romania (third in Pool B in Italy), and from 21 with defending champs home team Italy (first in Pool B) facing Spain (fourth in Pool D).

France is coming from a good performance in Pool D, finishing in second place (four wins and one loss for Les Bleus) behind The Netherlands, five wins and no losses for the Oranjes, the only team who defeated France in Pool D.

Emile Rousseaux’s team played good volleyball in the Pool, defeating Estonia, Spain, Finland and Slovakia, losing 1-3 by The Netherlands but fighting hard until the end, losing fourth set at the extras 24-26, showing they belong to the top level of Volleyball in EuroVolley 2023.

France and Romania have faced each other six times before at the European Championships.

Both nations won three times, with the first meeting at a EuroVolley at the inaugural edition in 1949, in Prague, Romania won 3-1.
France have qualified for the Eight-Final matches for the second edition in a row (in 2021 they won 3-2 against Croatia to reach the Quarter-Finals).

On the other side Romania have reached the Eight-Finals for the first time since 2019, when they lost 0-3 to Serbia. In this EuroVolley 2023, Naranjo Hernandez’s team can reach a top-eight finish at a European Championships for the first time since 2003, when Romania concluded the tournament in 8th place.
Top scorer for France until now is Lucille Gicquel with 84 points (9 aces), while the best for Romania is Adelina Budai-Ungureanu with 98 points.

In the second Eight-Final in Firenze, defending champs home team Italy will face Spain.

The Azzurre are coming from a five undisputed wins over Romania, Switzerland, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Bulgaria and Croatia, confirming themselves as one of the top favourite for the Gold Medal, while Spain won two games over eliminated teams Estonia and Finland, and lost versus The Netherlands, France and Slovakia, finishing Pool D in fourth place.

It seems to be an easy one for Italy, but never say never in Volleyball, because Pascual Saurin’s team is a strong squad who can be able to play good volleyball and put in trouble the opponents, with talented players as Lucia Varela Gomez (who plays in Italy with Igor Gorgonzola Novara), best scorer for Spain with 63 points.

In this moment Italy is a winning machine. Davide Mazzanti’s team have won each of their last 15 European Championship matches since they lost 1-3 against Serbia in the semi-finals in 2019. This is the longest winning run at the European Championships since Serbia won 24 in a row from 2015 to 2021.

On the other hand Spain have qualified for the Eight-Final matches despite losing their first three matches at EuroVolley 2023. In Firenze they can record a top eight finish at a European Championships for the first time. Their best result was a ninth place at EuroVolley 2009.

Two great Eight-Finals tonight at Palazzo Wanny in Firenze, France-Romania and Italy-Spain, EuroVolley 2023 at its best.