The French volleyball team, beaten by Argentina, is eliminated from the world championship

The sky has fallen on their heads. Among the favorites of the competition, the French volleyball players are returning home even before the round of 16 of the World Cup in the Philippines. In their third and final group match, Andrea Giani's men were beaten on Thursday, September 18, in Quezon City, by Argentina in a tie-break (26-28, 23-25, 25-21, 25-20, 12-15). Earlier in the day, Finland dominated South Korea in four sets (25-18 25-23 17-25 25-21) and finished first in the group. Both the Finns and the Argentinians are therefore qualified.

With two defeats and just one victory in the group stage (against lowly South Korea), Les Bleus are out of contention. This is the first time such a misfortune has befallen them since the 2016 Olympic Games. You have to go back to 1982 to find a record of France failing so early in a World Cup.

This elimination was nevertheless predictable, given that France had been beaten in the tie-break (19-25, 25-17, 27-29, 25-21, 9-15) by the Finns, only twentieth in the world rankings, on Wednesday.

"It's hard for me to talk about how tough this match was," France coach Andrea Giani told L'Equipe TV. "Every set was extremely close. Argentina played well, but we were able to come back. That's volleyball!"

For this Pool C summit between two-time Olympic champion France and ninth-ranked Argentina, the Araneta Coliseum in Quezon City, a venue that can accommodate up to 14,000 spectators, was only half full. The Argentinians had revenge to take on the French, who had beaten them in three sets in the semifinals of the 2021 Tokyo Olympics.

The intense match pitted two teams who know each other well and are similar in style. Like the French, the Argentinians relied on an aggressive defense to thwart their opponents.

The French team entered the match much better than it had two days earlier against Finland. The returns from injury of center Nicolas Le Goff and receiver-attacker Trévor Clévenot, as well as the proud reaction of their leader Earvin Ngapeth, who suffered a poor performance against the Finns, allowed Les Bleus to raise their level of play.

Facing them, the red-hot Argentinian team performed their best. Luciano De Cecco (37 years old), the veteran setter with magic hands, and his spikers Luciano Palovsky, Loser Agustin, and Pablo Kukartsev, dictated the tempo. Often overwhelmed on the counterattack, the French had three set points in the first set, but missed their chance, and it was the Argentinians who closed on their first opportunity.

In the second set, Andrea Giani tried to mix things up by bringing in Théo Faure to replace Jean Patry at point and Benjamin Toniutti to replace Antoine Brizard at setter. These changes didn't bear fruit due to the continued weakness of the French counterattack. The Argentinians won the second set with a net serve from Earvin Ngapeth, who is considered one of the best in the world at this exercise.

With their backs to the wall more than ever, the French finally responded in the third set. Irritated by a refereeing error, Barthélémy Chinenyeze and Théo Faure sounded the revolt. The end of the set was stormy, as the Argentinians were penalized for not respecting their court positions, giving the French a set point. A one-handed backhand pass by Luciano De Cecco, a champagne volleyball fan, brought the Araneta Coliseum crowd to their feet, but France took advantage of an Argentinian service error to come back to within two sets of one.