Tours was sharply eliminated in the play-offs for the quarter-finals of the Champions Volleyball League by Berlin at the end of the return leg played on Thursday in France.
The TVB, eliminated last year by Friedrichshafen, will not even have entertained the hope of playing a decisive golden set. He had to win 3-0 or 3-1, but the match was over in less than an hour, time for the Germans to win the first two sets (25-22 and 25-18) before win the last one without a stake (25-22).
He was tied for a long time in the first set before suffering the power of the Berliners, in particular the Australian center Nehemiah Mote, whose series of serves allowed his team to line up four points in a row to come away 19 to 16. A gap that the Tourangeaux were unable to fill, before collapsing at the start of the second set (2-6 then 6-11), visibly stunned by the loss of the first.
Like on this ace from Mote, again (6-10), on which several Marcelo Fronckowiak players looked at each other, each waiting for the other to receive.
Berlin and its French international attacker Timothée Carle (7 pts in two sets only, 54% attack success) came to highlight the weaknesses of a Touraine team that was largely rejuvenated and renewed last summer.
But after a sluggish start to the season, they found the right fuel, in the championship and in the Champions League, coming out second in their group ahead of the Poles from Rzeszow, a solid European team. Despite a return leg at home, his illusions of playing in a first Champions League quarter-final since 2007 were shattered on the Berlin Wall, despite being third in his group but much more experienced in the competition.
The German club will compete in the quarter-finals for the fourth season in a row, a stage most reached by a French representative since 2019 (Chaumont).
