Defending champions Italy make the cut

Serbia, Czechia, Finland, Tunisia, Belgium, Iran, Argentina and defending champions Italy all won their matches to join already qualified Poland, USA, Slovenia, Türkiye, Canada, Bulgaria, the Netherlands and Portugal in the FIVB Men World Championship Round of 16.

Of the 16 qualified teams, eight are supported by the FIVB Volleyball Empowerment Programme namely Czechia, Finland, Tunisia, Belgium, Slovenia, Canada, Bulgaria and the Netherlands.

Double Olympic champions France, three-time world champions Brazil, Asian champions Japan, Cuba, Germany and African champions Egypt are some of the pre-tournament favourites that were eliminated at the end of the preliminary round.

Italy’s title defense continues after the Europeans finished pool play strong and claimed the last spot in the tournament’s Round of 16 at the Smart Araneta Coliseum in Quezon City.

After a win and a loss in their first Pool F matches in the Philippines, the defending champions needed to overcome Ukraine to progress to the elimination rounds and delivered arguably their best performance in the tournament to do it, triumphing 3-0 (25-21, 25-22, 25-18).

Belgium secured the first place in the final Pool F standings after a strong straight-set finish against winless Algeria in Quezon City. The European team topped the table undefeated and will next meet the Pool C runners-up, which will arise among Finland, France and Argentina later on Thursday.

After Belgium wiped out the early four-point advantage Algeria was maintaining during the first half of the first set, it was pretty much a one-sided game, in which the European side built nicely to a 3-0 (25-22, 25-20, 25-12) victory, with sub-in outside Simon Plaskie delivering the match winner with a perfect diagonal hit from zone four.

In the last match of the pool in Quezon City, Argentina outlasted France after five sets of play and topped the final pool standings undefeated. In the first knockout round, they will play the reigning World Champions Italy.

Argentina had the lead for the most part of the two sets, but edged both by the narrowest of margins, still putting France with their backs against the wall. The Olympic champions fought back and leveled the score to prompt a tie-breaker. At that moment, the point ratio calculations already pointed to Finland as a sure pool runner-up and eighthfinalist, so in that fifth set, the first place in the pool and the second ticket to the next round were at stake.

The South American side stayed more concentrated, kept their cool through the end, which came with Luciano Vicentin’s successful swing for 3-2 (28-26, 25-23, 21-25, 20-25, 15-12).

Finland faced an already eliminated Korea in the first match of the day at the Smart Araneta Coliseum in Quezon City needing a sweep to advance regardless of other results in Pool C, and got close to it, triumphing 3-1 (25-18, 25-23, 17-25, 25-21).

This important victory qualified them into the next round after securing the second spot in their pool.

Czechia managed to extend their first world championship appearance in 15 years beyond pool play in a fantastic way on Thursday, securing the only result that would get them through in their final Pool H match and eliminating world number three Brazil along the way.

The Europeans faced China in the last match of the day at the SM Mall of Asia Arena in Pasay City knowing that only a three-set victory would get them through without a doubt, and they pushed for it, beating the Asians 3-0 (26-24, 25-19, 25-18) to spark emotional celebrations in the Philippines.

The last day of pool play matches started with a big turnaround, as Serbia secured a spot in the tournament’s Round of 16 after starting their campaign with a defeat. The scenario changed drastically after the Europeans upset the South Americans at the SM Mall of Asia Arena, in Pasay City, on Thursday, winning 3-0 (25-22, 25-20, 25-22) in the last day of matches in Pool H.

Tunisia won the crucial North African derby with Egypt and advanced. In a must win match in Pool A, the Tunisians swept the game in straight sets and secured the first place in the final pool standings on a 2-1 win-loss record, 6 points and a 7-3 set record. In their knockout match, they will take on the Pool H runners-up Czechia.

Tunisia outperformed Egypt in all scoring counts on the way to an emphatic 3-0 (25-19, 25-18, 25-22) shutout, with 21-year-old middle Mahdi Ben Tahar monster-blocking for the winning point. With this result, Tunisia jumped seven spots up the world ranking to number 33, while Egypt plummeted six positions down to number 28.

Iran survived six match points for the Philippines in the nerve-wracking ending of their crucial match for advancement. The epic five-setter finally went the way of the Iranians to place them second in the final Pool A standings and send them against the Pool H winners Serbia – in the first knockout round.

The Philippines were well in control of sets one and three and managed to step a set ahead twice in the match. Iran leveled up twice and pushed the game to a fifth set. The home team managed to recover from a 10-6 Iranian lead in the tie-breaker and was the first to reach match point. However, the much higher ranked Iranian team denied them as many as six opportunities to close the match.

Iran eventually triumphed with a 3-2 (21-25, 25-21, 17-25, 25-23, 22-20) victory on a monster block by 22-year-old middle Yousef Kazemi Poshtpari at their second match point.