2023-08-31 00:05:21
Less than a year from “its” Paris Olympics, the French men’s volleyball team, reigning Olympic champions, must reassure itself during Euro 2023 which it approaches as an outsider and with its star Earvin Ngapeth, who has not played for more than three months.
Since their Olympic coronation in Tokyo, the Blues have changed coaches, won a trophy, the 2022 Nations League, and experienced some disappointments. Even disregarding Euro 2021 (9th) played shortly after the Olympics in Japan at the end of a long and grueling international season, Ngapeth and his teammates are no longer scary.
Eliminated in the quarter-finals by the unstoppable Italians on the road to the title, reigning European and world champions, they finished 5th in the 2022 World Championship. narrowly snatched their ticket to the quarter-finals of the League of Nations, before giving in to the United States and finishing 8th.
There is no more time to lose: Euro 2023, contested in four countries, with a group stage for the Blues in Israel, potential 8th and quarter-finals in Bulgaria to end with a possible Final Four in Italy , is “an important step towards the 2024 Olympics”, summarizes their Italian coach Andrea Giani.
“When you start the match, the opponent must fear you”
“The objective is to win, develops Ngapeth. This is the last official competition before the Games. In volleyball, when you start the match, the opponent has to fear you. If you arrive at the Games as an Olympic champion and European champion, you start the match with an advantage. »
As often, Ngapeth, best player of the Olympic tournament in Tokyo two years ago, focuses the attention. But it’s not for his strokes of genius on the pitch or any new non-sporting problem. Injured in a thigh (crack in the quadriceps tendon of the right thigh), then plagued by a recalcitrant knee, the one who is considered at 32 as one of the best receivers-attackers in history has played no international match This year.
“I started jumping again without pain but there is a rhythm to pick up. We have a big entry group match (Wednesday) against the Turks but behind, we have much more affordable matches, ”he recalls. He could thus miss the entire group stage and even plans to “not start the match of the 8th finals”. “For now, it’s not easy for him, but the Euro is long,” reassures Giani.
“The competition is huge”
But even without the new player from Ankara, France, 6th in the FIVB world rankings, must theoretically finish at the top of their group. After Turkey (12th in the world) this Wednesday at 4 p.m., it will face Portugal (26th) on Thursday, Israel (68th) on Saturday, Romania (31st) on September 4 and will finish its group stage the next day against Greece (34th).
In the round of 16 with the expected return of Ngapeth, the Blues will fall on a team from group B, to choose between Bulgaria (30th), Croatia (32nd), Spain (33rd), Finland (22nd) or l Ukraine (13th), first place seems promised to Slovenia (8th). And if they reach the quarters, it will always be a group B team or an opponent already faced in the group stage.
It is in Rome during the Final Four that the Blues could pass a crucial test for the 2024 Olympics. “It would be good to bring back a medal even if the competition is enormous”, insists the passer Benjamin Toniutti. “The Euro won dates back to 2015, it’s starting to get far. For our group, it would be great to have a second European title,” adds Ngapeth.
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