The stars of tomorrow are battling in out at the 2018 Boys’ U18 Volleyball European Championship, hosted by the Czech Republic and Slovakia. Russia, Italy, Germany, and the Czechs ran through their competition in pool play and will contest the tournament’s semifinals, starting this Saturday, with eventual champions being crowned on Sunday, April 15.
The semis are expected to be real tough volleyball battles, as the teams on it have a history of success in the tournament: Russia is its biggest winner with 5 titles, Italy has won it once, and have come second in the last two editions, while the Czechs are the current champions. Here is how the teams reacted to clinching their final 4 berths (CEV.lu):
“We are all very happy, because last year we finished fifth at #EuroVolleyU17M in Turkey. This year we wanted to play in the finals and to win this championship. We played a good game against a very strong opponent like Belgium and we are looking forward to competing in Zlin.” – Russia’s captain Stanislav Antonov
“We have five victories, I have to be satisfied, as we reached the semifinal. Very important for us is now to continue playing on the same level we showed in Puchov.” Italy’s coach Vincenzo Fanizza
“Today it was a game of life or death. We chose life. The match was super, we also had a bit of good luck. We are very happy to go to the semifinals.” Czech Captain Jiří Mikulenka
Recaps
Pool I
| Matches | Pts | Sets | Points | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Rank | Team | W | L | W | L | Ratio | W | L | Ratio | |
| 1 |  Germany |
4 | 1 | 10 | 13 | 8 | 1.625 | 476 | 447 | 1.065 |
| 2 |  Czech Republic |
3 | 2 | 9 | 12 | 9 | 1.333 | 467 | 448 | 1.042 |
| 3 |  Bulgaria |
3 | 2 | 7 | 9 | 10 | 0.900 | 412 | 430 | 0.958 |
| 4 |  Belarus |
2 | 3 | 7 | 10 | 10 | 1.000 | 449 | 426 | 1.054 |
| 5 |  Turkey |
2 | 3 | 7 | 9 | 11 | 0.818 | 455 | 460 | 0.989 |
| 6 |  Greece |
1 | 4 | 5 | 8 | 13 | 0.615 | 419 | 467 | 0.897 |
Pool II
| Matches | Pts | Sets | Points | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Rank | Team | W | L | W | L | Ratio | W | L | Ratio | |
| 1 |  Italy |
5 | 0 | 15 | 15 | 1 | 15.000 | 392 | 297 | 1.320 |
| 2 |  Russia |
4 | 1 | 12 | 13 | 3 | 4.333 | 389 | 300 | 1.297 |
| 3 |  Belgium |
3 | 2 | 9 | 9 | 7 | 1.286 | 358 | 329 | 1.088 |
| 4 |  France |
2 | 3 | 6 | 7 | 10 | 0.700 | 348 | 387 | 0.899 |
| 5 |  Ukraine |
1 | 4 | 2 | 4 | 14 | 0.286 | 346 | 428 | 0.808 |
| 6 |  Slovakia |
0 | 5 | 1 | 2 | 15 | 0.133 | 322 | 414 | 0.778 |
Final round
| Semifinals | Final | ||||||
| Germany |
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| Russia |
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| 3rd place match | |||||||
| Italy |
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| Czech Republic |
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