Host Germany, FIVB World Grand Prix bronze medal winners Serbia, Russia as well as Belgium booked their quarterfinal tickets at 2013 CEV Volleyball European Championship for women, the first of four continental championships in September where the winners qualify for the women's FIVB World Grand Champions Cup. A big surprise came with Belgium beating World No. 4 Italy in Pool B’s last match of the preliminary round.
Belgium outclassed World No. 4 Italy 3:1 (22-25, 25-16, 26-24, 25-18) and thus directly qualified for the quarterfinals. After three hard-hitting competition days, Gert Vande Broeks’ “Yellow Tigers” top pool B with their third consecutive victory. France beat co-host Switzerland in extremis 3:2 (17-25, 25-17, 24-26, 25-17, 15-9) to move, together with second ranked Italy, to the playoff round.
Co-host Germany secured their quarterfinal ticket with a faultless straight-set win over Turkey (25-19, 25-23, 27-25). In Pool A’s first duel of the day, The Netherlands outclassed Spain 25-16, 25-14, 25-18. Turkey and the Netherlands advance to the playoff round.
After their big success versus Azerbaijan the day before, Belarus could not tie in with another big game in Pool C. Croatia outshined the Byelorussians in straight sets (25-19, 25-10, 25-19). Russia booked their third win at EuroVolley 2013 by defeating Azerbaijan in straight sets (25-16, 25-20, 28-26). Powerhouse Russia go directly to the quarterfinals, Croatia and Belarus continue in the playoff round.
The Czech Republic claimed their playoff round ticket with a hard earned five-set win over Bulgaria (14-25, 25-20, 29-31, 25-19, 15-11). Defending champions Serbia finish on top of Pool D. The team of head coach Zoran Terzic proved too strong for Poland (25-18, 25-18, 22-25, 25-21).
The competition resumes on Tuesday with eight teams battling for the four remaining quarterfinal spots.
Playoff round: Turkey v Belarus Croatia v The Netherlands Italy v Poland Czech Republic v France
Quarterfinals: Germany v winner Croatia v The Netherlands Russia v winner Turkey v Belarus Belgium v winner Czech Republic v France Serbia v winner Italy v Poland
The winner of the CEV Volleyball European Championship will qualify for the FIVB Volleyball World Grand Champions Cup featuring a total of six teams per gender with the hosts Japan being joined by the continental winners from Asia, Europe, NORCECA and South America with an additional country selected by the FIVB. Africa do not have an automatic spot in the tournament after finishing the 2012 Olympic Games as the lowest ranked confederation amongst the five.
The World Grand Champions Cup is a quadrennial round-robin competition for men and women. The last edition of the tournament was in 2009 with Brazil coming away with the men’s title for the second consecutive time after remaining unbeaten while in the women’s tournament, Italy picked up their first ever crown. Japan will host the next edition, with the women’s event set to take place from November 12 to 17, 2013 and the men’s from November 19 to 24, 2013.
CEV Volleyball European Championship – Women Records of the last five editions 2011 in Italy/Serbia: Serbia (gold), Germany (silver), Turkey (bronze) 2009 in Poland: Italy (gold), the Netherlands (silver), Poland (bronze) 2007 in Belgium/Luxembourg: Italy (gold), Serbia (silver), Russia (bronze) 2005 in Croatia: Poland (gold), Italy (silver), Russia (bronze) 2003 in Turkey: Poland (gold), Turkey (silver), Germany (bronze)
CEV Volleyball European Championship – Women All-time medal table (Gold/Silver/Bronze) 1. Russia (17/4/3) 2. Poland (2/4/5) 3. Germany (2/5/3) 4. Italy (2/2/2) 5. The Czech Republic (1/4/4) 6. The Netherlands (1/2/1) 7. Bulgaria (1/0/2) 8. Serbia (1/1/1) 9. Croatia (0/3/0) 10. Hungary (0/1/3) 11. Turkey (0/1/1) 12. Romania (0/0/1) 12. Ukraine (0/0/1).
World Ranking – Women (participating teams) 4. Italy 6. Russia 7. Serbia 9. Germany 11. Turkey 13. Poland 18. The Netherlands 22. The Czech Republic 31. Croatia 31. Bulgaria 36. Azerbaijan 39. Belgium 39. Belarus 42. Spain 42. France 109. Switzerland.
