FRANCE are the NEW VOLLEYBALL KINGS OF EUROPE!!!

Congrats Team Yavbou!!!

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FINAL RANKING:

1. France*
2. Slovenia*
3. Italy*
4. Bulgaria*
5. Poland*
6. Russia*
7. Serbia*
8. Germany
9. The Netherlands
10. Belgium
11. Estonia
12. Finland
13. Czech Republic
14. Slovakia
15. Croatia
16. Belarus

*Qualified for the Final Round of the 2017 edition together with hosts Poland.

THE DREAM TEAM

MVP: Antonin Rouzier (FRA)

Best Setter: Simone Giannelli (ITA)
Best Opposite: Ivan Zaytsev (ITA)
Best Outside Spiker. Tine Urnaut (SLO)
Second Best Outside Spiker: Earvin Ngapeth (FRA)
Best Middle Blocker: Teodor Todorov (BUL)
Second Best Middle Blocker: Viktor Yosifov (BUL)
Best Libero: Jénia Grebennikov (FRA)

Fair Play Award: Vladimir Nikolov (BUL)

THE FINALS:

Gold Medal Match: France 3-1 Slovenia

To cap an incredible season where they first won the Group 2 Finals of the FIVB Volleyball World League to move on to the Group 1 final stage and beat the ‘big guns’ in Rio de Janeiro, ‘Les Bleus’ claimed on Sunday night at Arena Armeec in Sofia their first, historic European title. They played a perfect match and even though the second and third sets added a bit of drama to the 2015 men’s EuroVolley final night of action, they walked quite confidently towards the achievement of yet another milestone in France’s Volleyball history recording a 3:0 win (25-19, 29-27, 29-27) in the gold medal match with Slovenia. This is France’s seventh European medal, which is to be added to four silver ones and another two bronze ‘Les Bleus’ have won since the European Championship was first played in 1948.

Bronze Medal Match: Italy 3-1 Bulgaria

The crowd at Arena Armeec in Sofia deserved a warm farewell to Bulgaria’s Lions even though the local heroes lost the bronze medal match of the 2015 men’s EuroVolley to co-hosts Italy. The Azzurri bounced back strong from their semi-final setback with Slovenia and imposed their pace right from the onset of the match. Bulgaria’s reaction came especially in the third set but Italy had more consistency in their performance while the hosts seemed not to have fully recovered from their upset in the dramatic semi-final with France the night before. Italy finished it off in four sets (25-20, 25-14, 23-25, 25-20) to secure their thirteenth European Championship medal in history to follow on silver they had won both in 2011 and 2013.

SEMIFINAL ROUND:

Slovenia 3-1 Italy

Slovenia’s fairy tale at the 2015 men’s EuroVolley continued on Saturday afternoon at Arena Armeec in Sofia where the players coached by Italy’s Volleyball legend Andrea Giani caused yet another sensation – two days ago they had already upset reigning world champions Poland in the quarterfinals – edging Italy by 3:1 (25-13, 23-25, 25-20, 25-20) to get the right to vie for European gold on Sunday!

France 3-2 Bulgaria

Similarly to what had happened earlier in the afternoon to Italy, the other co-host of the 2015 men’s EuroVolley, Bulgaria also missed out on a spot in the gold medal match of the tournament that will be reaching its climax on Sunday at Arena Armeec in Sofia. The second semi-final had everything you can ask from a Volleyball match at this level: a 12,500-strong amazing home crowd, a 2:0 lead for the home team and an incredible comeback by ‘Les Bleus’. After topping the charts of this year’s FIVB Volleyball World League, France will now vie for their first European title in history following their tie-break win over the Lions on Saturday night (18-25, 22-25, 26-24, 25-21, 15-12).

QUARTERFINAL ROUND:

France 3-1 Serbia

France continued their perfect run in the 2015 edition of the men’s EuroVolley claiming also the remake of this year’s World League ‘grand finale’ with Serbia, this time recording a 3:1 win (25-22, 25-23, 14-25, 25-20) in their third match up of the season against the 2013 EuroVolley bronze medal winners. France will now board the flight to Sofia, Bulgaria to contest the final weekend of Europe’s premier competition, vying for their first medal since they won silver in 2009 in Izmir, Turkey. France have never won gold at the EuroVolley and have four silver medals (1948, 1987, 2003 and 2009) and two bronze (1951 and 1985) on their resume.

Slovenia 3-2 Poland

Slovenia’s fairy tale at the 2015 men’s EuroVolley continued on Wednesday when the ‘Blue Boys’ mentored by Italian Volleyball legend Andrea Giani upset reigning world champions Poland to make the semis of Europe’s premier competition that are due to follow on Saturday at Arena Armeec in Sofia. The gold medallists from the 2015 CEV Volleyball European League were impossible to match for Poland in the two first sets before the guys in white and red shirts stormed back to call for the tie-break. Slovenia set the pace almost from start to end in the deciding set but had to survive a match ball for their opponents before celebrating one of the greatest achievements in their country’s sporting history (25-17, 25-19, 23-25, 19-25, 16-14).

Italy 3-0 Russia

Italy completed the programme of the 2015 men’s EuroVolley at Palayamamay in Busto Arsizio with a spectacular 3:0 victory over Russia (25-20, 25-19, 25-19) to move on to the semis and play there the real sensation of the tournament, 2015 CEV Volleyball European League gold medallists Slovenia, and their mentor Andrea Giani who – up to last year’s World Championship in Poland – was a member of the Italian national team’s coaching staff.

Bulgaria 3-0 Germany

Hosts Bulgaria repeated their classy performance from the first day of action in Sofia and left almost no chance at all to Germany recording their second 3:0 win over the Baku 2015 European Games gold medallists (25-19, 25-23, 25-23) to continue their amazing journey in the competition and go for a much anticipated semi-final with France coming up on Saturday.

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