Belgium extended its unbeaten campaign with a 25-21, 25-17, 25-21 win over Finland to gain a shot at reigning champion Italy in the quarterfinals of the FIVB Volleyball Men’s World Championship on Sunday at the Mall of Asia Arena.
Ferre Reggers was unstoppable once again with 20 points on 18 hits and two aces as the world No. 15 Red Dragons continued to be one of the revelations in the 32-team tournament by tying their best finish ever with a quarterfinal appearance.
Belgium, which finished eight in the 1970 edition, now sports a pretty chance to even surpass that feat, as it dukes it out against world No. 2 Italy, a 25-23, 25-20, 25-22 winner over Argentina, for a seat in the Final Four on Wednesday at the same venue.
It will be a rematch between the squads after Belgium scored a 25-23, 22-25, 25-22, 21-25, 15-13 stunner over Italy in the preliminary round.
Reggers, the team’s leading scorer through its Pool F sweep, joined forces with team captain Sam Deroo, who fired 19 points on 15 hits and four blocks.
Stijn D’Hulst provided 24 sets to orchestrate the offense of Belgium with 24 sets for Belgium in its roaring world championship return after missing a berth in 2022.
“First off all we’re very proud, we are very satisfied for the achievement, for the goal that we obtained, for the tournament that we are playing,” said head coach Emanuele Zanini.
“Today was not the best game that we are playing, particularly in the first set. We started very rough and emotional but our more experienced players held the young core to come in the game and we started to play. I’m really satisfied and proud of the performance of the players.”
Fresh off a three-day break after topping Pool F with wins against Ukraine and Algeria, Belgium banked on a 4-0 closeout in the first set to shrug off a strong resistance from Finland and set the tone in the Round of 16 match.
And it was all Red Dragons from there on, slowly but surely taking the fight out of the Finns in the middle sets, 18-12 in the second then 10-6 in the third, to finish them off in only 79 minutes.
Joonas Mikael Jokela was the lone bright spot with 14 points for Finland, which also had a commendable campaign with a Round of 16-finish after not qualifying in the 2022 edition hosted by Poland and Slovenia.
World No. 18 Finland finished second behind erstwhile unbeaten Argentina in Pool C with a 2-1 slate, highlighted by a 25-19, 17-25, 29-27, 21-25, 15-9 slaying of reigning Olympic gold medalist France.
Earlier, Alessandro Michieletto, Yuri Romano and Mattia Bottolo scored 15, 14 and 13 points, respectively, to lead the Italians’ march to the quarterfinals despite a resilient stand by the Argentines in each of the sets of its sweeping victory.
Reigning World Championship MVP and Best Setter Simone Giannelli was on target anew with 34 sets laced by three points.
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