Paris 2024 men's volleyball: Olympic champions France and World No. 1 Poland advance to final after thrilling semis
Itâs the defending Olympic champions versus the worldâs No. 1 team in the Paris 2024 menâs volleyball final.
Hosts France will try to make it back-to-back gold medals after sweeping past Italy 3-0 in the semi-finals, while Poland had to claw their way back against USA in the other tie for a 3-2 victory at the South Paris Arena on Wednesday (7 August).
The gold-medal match is on Sunday with the battle for bronze a day earlier. France can become only the third country to defend the men's Olympic title, the first in 36 years since the United States did it in 1984 and 1988.
France won 25-20, 25-21, 25-21 over the Azzurri, who seemed to have emptied their tank in reaching the final four when they saved three match points and roared back from 2-0 down against Japan in their quarter-final.
Trevor Clevenot led France with 17 points - 15 kills and a pair of blocks.
Poland had been eliminated in the last eight at the previous five Games but had got the monkey off their back in the previous round, before ended another drought of 48 years by advancing to the gold-medal match with a come-from-behind 25-23, 25-27, 14-25, 25-23, 15-13 win against USA.
Poland and France met last month in the Volleyball Nations League semi-finals, where the French had the last laugh.
Poland's men have reached their first Olympic final in 48 years.