Fancied Italians, French try to avoid going home early
The 2025 FIVB Men’s World Championship has so far seen two fancied countries in very unusual situations, with defending champion Italy, which was expected to run through Group F play, finding itself wedged between a rock and a hard place after action on Tuesday.
From being penciled as shoo-ins for the Round of 16, the Italians are in danger of fumbling their title defense bid.
“We know no one would be easy in this competition,” Alessandro Michieletto said after their stunning five-set loss at the hands of Belgium late Tuesday evening. “This is volleyball. This is our sport so we’re ready for it.
“The important thing is to play better than today. We can’t play worse than we did today so we’ll try to play [better],” said Michieletto, referring to their clash with Ukraine at 9:30 p.m. on Thursday at Smart Araneta Coliseum.
The Italians began their title defense on a high note with a sweep of Algeria a few days ago. Their momentum, however, reached a screeching halt when they absorbed a 25-23, 25-20, 22-25, 21-25, 15-13 defeat at the hands of the Belgians.
Carefree approach
Michieletto is now harping for a carefree approach when they play their final classification phase game.
“We won three years ago. A lot of time has passed,” he said. “Now, we’re not the champions of Europe or the VNL, so no pressure.”
Italy isn’t the only squad put on notice two nights ago, as France, the champion of the 2024 Olympics at home in Paris, was the clear-cut Group C favorite until the French were fried in five sets by Finland earlier the same day.
“I think we had a tough group to begin with,” French ace Jean Patry said. “The teams inside this group are very high. We saw that game between Argentina and Finland and it was tough. So was our game. Our group is very strong, I think.”
The Finns, ranked 18th in the world, pulled off an upset of the No. 4 squad, 19-25, 25-17, 27-29, 25-21, 15-9, and Patry knows very well after the loss that this is a different race than the Olympics.
And their title dreams here are in trouble, especially since their last game in Group C is a clash against Argentina, which has so far impressed and is unbeaten in two games.
“We know very much about that team (Argentina),” Patry said of their 6 p.m. collision with the Argentines also on Thursday. “We will focus on them. We have to win and it’ll be a fight. That’s the only solution.”
