Romania won the first ticket to the quarter-finals of Euro-2023 men’s volleyball, beating Croatia 3 sets to 2 (25-17, 25-20, 17-25, 26-28, 15-12 ), Friday in Varna (Bulgaria).
The Romanians, 3rd in Group D and 24th in the world rankings, won the first two rounds easily before stalling.
The Croatians (25th in the world) who finished in 2nd place in group B equalized at two sets everywhere, but the players coached by Frenchman Cédric Enard started the tie-break badly and did not recover.
The Romanians will face in the quarter-finals on Monday, still in Varna, the winner of the duel scheduled for Friday evening between France, 2021 Olympic champion, and Bulgaria. They have already faced the French during this Euro and inflicted their only defeat (3-1) on them in the group stage in Tel Aviv (Israel).
