“We want to win the Euro. That’s the goal for the summer.” For Antoine Brizard and his teammates from the French team, the European Volleyball Championship (August 28-September 16) in Italy, Bulgaria, North Macedonia and Israel is much more than a milestone on the way to the Olympic Games. from Paris. Firstly because this is the last official competition before next summer, the Blues having no qualifying tournament (TQO) to play. Also because “the French team, as reigning Olympic champion, is now looking for a medal in each competition” according to Kevin Tillie, and that “a Euro is a title, it’s something you dream since we were little. After that of 2015, his generation would see themselves hanging a second European trophy on their way.
With a view to managing the workforce, the staff of Italian coach Andrea Giani granted executives rest between the club season and the start of the international period. The group was thus enlarged to compete in the League of Nations in June and July, with the presence of many young people. Defending champions, the Blues were eliminated in the quarter-finals by the United States after hanging in extremis the final phase. A sacrifice that “bears fruit,” said receiver-attacker Yacine Louati, 31. “We are fresh, especially mentally. I’m not saying that thanks to that, we will win the Euro. But anyway, it makes sense.”
“I was a bit fed up with volleyball, but that’s fine, everything is fine,” confirms Antoine Brizard, who is coming off a long season with Pallavolo Plaisance, in Italy. A salutary holiday therefore, but not without consequences on the level of preparation of the team. The twelve Olympic champions are there, but in what state? “The recovery was tough, we arrived in different states of form and it’s a bit long to hang up all the wagons,” continues the Habs smuggler. If the matches should not be taken lightly, the first week of competition in Tel Aviv can be used to refine the settings and treat the last sores, with a relatively affordable preliminary round.
But beware of the first match, this Wednesday against Turkey (4 p.m.), undoubtedly the toughest opponent in a Pool D which also includes Greece, Israel, Portugal and Romania. “The Turks are in good shape, they play well and are dangerous. It would take a lot of pressure off us to win and it would allow us to work more calmly for the future. A necessarily special meeting for the star of the Blues, Earvin Ngapeth.
At 32, the MVP of the last Tokyo Games has just signed for the Turkish club Halkbank Ankara, with the objective of “evolving in a less dense championship” where he will have plenty of time to “prepare serenely for the Games and arriving in top physical shape.” In the meantime, the native of Saint-Raphaël has not played in any League of Nations match for persistent knee pain, nor taken part in the three friendly matches against Italy, Poland and Slovenia. But the receiver-attacker is “super eager to start the matches” and his coach, whom he has rubbed shoulders with in Italy in Modena in recent years, knows his qualities better than anyone.
Andrea Giani is about to play his first major competition at the head of the France team. After ten years of reign of Laurent Tillie and the ephemeral passage of the Brazilian Bernardinho (October 2021-March 2022), the man with more than 400 selections with Italy has already proven that he knows how to win by winning the League of Nations 2022 Still, the style of play he advocates has not yet been fully digested by his team. “It’s a powerful volleyball, more physical than the basic French volleyball, explains the libero Jenia Grebennikov. We did a lot of physical work to bring this new touch to our usually more defensive style, a little more in the feeling. It can make a good mix, but it doesn’t happen overnight.
Between video sessions and tactical analyses, the Italian staff trivializes the use of figures and statistics to prepare matches. He will necessarily have noted all the small imperfections and problems of the last outings, in particular in the service. The Habs played three friendly matches in Krakow in August, as part of the Wagner Memorial. After two rather worrying defeats against Italy (0-3) and Poland (1-3), two Euro favorites, Antoine Brizard’s teammates recovered well against Slovenia (3-1). “It’s good for the confidence to have won this third match, we end on a good note. We are not dropped, we know where we have to go. Perform at the Euro therefore, before heading to Paris.
