On Sunday, June 16, the final matches of the preliminary phase of the Women’s Nations League were played. Based on their results, not only the eight teams that will continue fighting for the trophy were determined, but also all the teams that will participate in the volleyball tournament at the Paris Olympic Games.
Who surprised and who disappointed? Let’s figure it out!
invincible Brazil
The Brazilian women’s team is experiencing the perfect summer of 2024. In the third week, the Brazilians faced the teams of Poland, Germany, Bulgaria and Turkey. The South Americans became the first team in the history of the Nations League to go through the group stage without defeat and, of course, took first place. A pleasant advantage was the promotion to first place in the world ranking.
The key match for Brazil was the meeting with Poland. Both teams faced the beginning of the third stage without losing and someone had to know their bitterness. The Brazilians lost the first set, but easily won the next three: 3:1 (22:25, 25:17, 25:17 and 25:16). Captain Gabi (24 points) contributed greatly to her team’s success and Julia Bergmann (17 points) helped her.
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Victories over the girls from Germany and Bulgaria were a matter of technique, and the Turkish girls could not offer serious resistance – 14:25, 14:25, 19:25. However, this result can be justified by the fact that the reigning Nations League champions have already qualified for the playoffs and allowed themselves to relax.
The Americans seized their opportunity.
Because the Thai team, as the host of the final matches of the Nations League, advanced by default to the quarterfinals, despite the 13th place in the table, the last qualifying place for the guests was the seventh.
And a beautiful fight took place in this square, in which the teams from the United States, Holland and Canada participated. China might have been around seventh place, but the Chinese had a solid third week. Although the coaching staff periodically left Zhu Ting on the bench, the team won four games in a row and moved comfortably into fourth place in the table.
The key matches in the fight for seventh place were United States – Netherlands (3-0) and Netherlands – Canada (3-0). If the Canadians had been able to beat the Netherlands, they would have surpassed the Americans in number of wins and made the playoffs. But the Stars and Stripes had an opportunity and they made the most of it.
As a result, in addition to Thailand, the following seven teams qualified for the playoffs: Brazil, Italy, Poland, China, Japan, Turkey and the United States.
Who will play against whom in the quarterfinals?
The quarterfinal matches of the Women’s Nations League will be played on June 20.
The couples are formed as follows:
Poland – Turkey (June 21) Italy – United States (June 21) China – Japan (June 20) Brazil – Thailand (June 20).
The semi-final matches will take place on June 22. The Brazilians should have no problems in the match with the home team, so in the semi-finals they will probably play with representatives of Celeste, who have gained good momentum and have every chance of knocking the Japanese out of the way. .
And the third and fourth quarterfinals are likely to be more intense and unpredictable. Any of the four teams can be a finalist.
Selection results for the 2024 Olympic Games
Based on the results of the preliminary stage of the League of Nations, a world ranking was formed that determines the composition of the participants in the Olympic tournament.
There was only one serious intrigue: who would take last place in the ranking: the Netherlands or Canada? The answer to this question was largely given by the head-to-head confrontation in which the Netherlands won. They found themselves taller and jumped into the last car of the Olympic train leaving for Paris.
All the teams participating in the Olympic tournament are here:
Stories
All participants in the women’s volleyball tournament at the 2024 Olympic Games
