Italy and France prevail on Nations Cup pools in Heraklion
News
After three days of intense competition in Heraklion, Greece, the national teams of Italy and France overcame some strong opponents to succeed in their pools in the Preliminary Phase of the 2023 CEV Beach Volleyball Nations Cup.
Italians, who topped the men’s Pool C, overcoming Denmark, Gibraltar, hosts Greece and Ukraine, and French, who thrived on Pool E over Spain, Greece and Portugal, will both appear in the 2023 Nations Cup Finals, which will be held later this year. Switzerland, Austria, Sweden and the Netherlands are also guaranteed among the men, while the Netherlands, Poland and Latvia were the first to secure their spots in the women’s event.
Represented by their top teams of Paolo Nicolai/Samuele Cottafava and Adrian Carambula/Alex Ranghieri, Italy entered the weekend as the favorites and confirmed the expectations, registering a flawless campaign of six victories and no sets dropped to win their duels against Greece, Ukraine and Denmark.
In the final against the Danish, while Nicolai and Cottafava swept (21-15, 21-15) Mads Møllgaard and Nicolai Hovmann, Carambula and Ranghieri also secured a 2-0 (21-14, 21-16) win, this one against Jacob Brinck and Kristoffer Abell.
If the Italian victory among the men was somewhat expected, the same cannot be said about the French triumph in the women’s event as the country’s national team had very strong competition from the Spanish. The expectations were confirmed, with the two teams meeting in the final series, but the French were dominant, winning both matches.
Aline Chamereau and Clémence Viera scored the first point for the French, prevailing over Belén Carro and Angela Lobato in the tie-breaker (21-17, 15-21, 15-12) in the first match of the final, and Lézana Placette and Alexia Richard confirmed their triumph with another three-set (21-16, 27-29, 15-12) win, over Liliana Fernández and Paula Soria.
Created in 2022, the Nations Cup brings added weight in 2023 and 2024, serving as the European pathway in the qualification system for the beach volleyball tournament of the Paris 2024 Olympics – the countries that win the 2024 Finals among the men and the women will each earn a spot in the Games. The seven pool winners and the host country will play in this year's Finals.
The event has a different competition format, promoting ‘country vs. country’ battles. Each nation is represented by two teams and the duels take place in a best-of-three format, with the decider, if needed, being a 15-point golden set.