RRI Sports Club

Volleyball

Steliu Lambru, 06.09.2023, 13:45

Romania’s men’s volleyball team
concluded Group D of the European Championships in Tel Aviv – Yafo, Israel, with
a clear victory against defending Olympic champions France. The 3-1 win (25-23,
16-25, 25-18, 25-21) secured Romania its qualification in the eighth-finals.

The best Romanian players were
Adrian Aciobăniţei, currently playing for the Polish side Skra Belchatow, who
scored 20 points, Alexandru Raţă with 12 points and Robert Călin with 11 points.
On the French side, the best players were Stephen Boyer with 19 points scored,
Yacine Louati with 15 and Kevin Tillie with 11.

Romania had started the
competition with 2 matches lost, 0-3 to Portugal and 2-3 to Israel. But the
Romanian team made a strong come-back in the second part of the group stage and
won their last 3 matches, 3-2 against Turkey, 3-1 against Greece and 3-1 against
France.

In the last 2 matches of the
group, Turkey defeated Israel, 3-0 and France beat Greece 3-0. In the final
group D standing, France ranks first with 12 points, followed by Portugal with 9,
Romania also 9, Turkey with 8 points, Israel (4 points) and Greece (3 points). The
top 4 teams in the group qualify in the eighth-finals.

Romania will take on Croatia, the
team that came second in Group B, on the 9 September in Varna, Bulgaria.

In the previous edition of the
competition, hosted by France, Slovenia, Belgium and the Netherlands in 2019,
Romania finished 21st in the ranking. In the history of the European
Volleyball Championships, Romania’s best results were gold in 1963, two silver
medals in 1955 and 1958, and two bronze medals, in 1971 and 1977.

The 2023 European Championship
takes place in 4 countries-Israel, Italy, Bulgaria and North Macedonia, between
28 August and 16 September. (AMP)