Pool A Preview: Two powerhouses and co-hosts Belgium aim for knockout phase berths

Co-hosting the CEV EuroVolley Women for the fourth time in history, Belgium will be aiming as high as possible this summer, as the final round of the European premium volleyball competition will take place in the Palais 12 in Brussels. Yet the co-hosts will have a tough schedule to navigate in Pool A, where they face Slovenia, Serbia, Poland, Ukraine and Hungary.

There are two clear favourites for this group – Serbia and Poland – with both registering excellent results over the last years. With huge experience and talent, Serbia have been one of the most consistent sides at the CEV EuroVolley Women over the last decade, winning three gold medals – 2011, 2017 and 2019 – as well as coming into this competition as the reigning world champions, after clinching the gold medal at Netherlands/Poland 2022 with a dominating display. Serbia will also rely on Tijana Bošković, who made the All-Star team in 2021 as the best opposite, while also being the top scorer of the competition, with a whopping 215 points tally.

On the other hand, Poland, who are playing for the 32nd time at the CEV EuroVolley Women, missing out on only one edition, in 1993, have finished fourth in 2019 and fifth in 2021, but have been excellent this summer in the FIVB Volleyball Women’s Nations League, where they clinched a spot on the podium, after a dramatic 3:2 win in the bronze medal game against the United States of America. In 15 matches played this summer, Poland have only dropped three, and have beaten Serbia, 3:0 (25:18, 25:22, 30:28) in June.

With the two sides being clear frontrunners on paper, it will be interesting to see just how much Belgium can deliver on home court, trying to bridge the gap to the two favourites. Their record at the CEV EuroVolley Women against Poland, for example, speaks volumes, with Poland taking six wins out of seven matches against Belgium, dominating the mutual meetings.

Yet Belgium, which have also won only one set in the last two meetings against Serbia, will be surely buoyed by their home crowds and will try to emulate their performances from 2013, when they secured their only medal in history, the bronze, after winning four of the five matches they played.

The battle for the fourth place in the group, which will secure safe passage to the knockout rounds, looks to be wide open and it will likely be a matter of experience and of grit, with three teams – Hungary, Slovenia and Ukraine – aiming to clinch a place between the top 16 teams at CEV EuroVolley 2023 Women.

Slovenia are the only side to have missed out on participating at the previous edition of the CEV EuroVolley Women, after having previously qualified for the eighth finals in 2019 and taking part in the pools in 2015, as they will be returning to the European premium competition after a four-year hiatus and only for the third time in their history.

On the other side, both Hungary and Ukraine have made the knockout phase two years ago, but were eliminated by Serbia (0:3) and Poland (1:3) respectively, as they will now have the chance to avenge those losses in Pool A of the CEV EuroVolley 2023 Women.

However, their work will be cut out for themselves, as they will need excellent performances to reach the top 10, a feature last achieved by Ukraine in 2003, when they ended up on the ninth position, and in 1987 by Hungary, when they finished on the tenth place.