2018 FIVB MEN’S CHALLENGER CUP:
- June 20-24, 2018
- Matosinhos, Portugal
- World Rankings: #16 Cuba, #27 Czech Republic, #30 Portugal, #32 Estonia
- What’s on the line?
- The winning team of the tournament move on to the 2019 FIVB Volleyball Nations League, replacing the lowest ranked challenger team from the 2018 event
SEMIFINAL #1 – CZECH REPUBLIC vs. ESTONIA
- Start Time: 14:00 (GMT)/15:00 Local/10:00 Eastern Standard Time
Czech Republic started 2-4 in the Golden European League, but didn’t have to exhaust their top play since they knew they were hosting the semifinals round. From there, they became a totally new team, winning their semifinal match to clinch a bid to this event before earning victories in both pool play matches of the Challenger Cup.
Their next opponent comes in the form of another European nation, Estonia. Sure enough, the Estonian side was actually the team who took Gold just a week ago at the European League by downing the Czech side 3-0 in the championship match. Still, all sets ended with a deficit or three or four. Estonia also went 1-1 in group play for the Challenger Cup, losing to Portugal in Pool A.
You can watch the action live below through the FIVB Volleyball Channel on YouTube:
SEMIFINAL #2 – PORTUGAL vs. CUBA
- Start Time: 17:00 (GMT)/18:00 Local/13:00 Eastern Standard Time
The second semifinal features the hosting nation, Portugal, against the world’s highest ranked of the bunch in Cuba. Starting with the home side, Portugal represents the third of four teams from Europe in the final four. They’re hoping for a different path than the Golden European League though, where they went 5-1 in pool play (2-0 in this event) before losing in the semifinals and third place match to finish things out. It’s possible they didn’t exhaust all of their options knowing they were in this event no matter what and they’ve been stellar to kick off the Challenger Cup so far.
Cuba will look to take down the side playing at home as they come off of a 3-1 victory over Chile. That was preceded by a sweep loss to the Czech Republic, where they were exposed a bit – although kept it close in every set. They should have what it takes to pull off the upset, but it won’t be easy considering how well Portugal has played in front of a supportive contingent thus far.
You can catch the action live on the FIVB Volleyball Channel. The link to all of the live streams and videos can be seen here.
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