French stars back on squad for home event in Orleans

Defending Volleyball Nations League 2022 champions France and four of the top five teams in the current Volleyball Nations League 2023 standings are among the eight to compete in the Pool 4 matches of the second competition week in Orleans. A total of 16 games will be played in the French city starting on Tuesday, June 20, and culminating with a big clash between the winners of the previous two editions, Brazil and France, on Sunday, June 25.

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The reigning Olympic and VNL champions will welcome their opponents to a brand new 10,000-seater in Orleans. Les Bleus are hosting official international matches on French soil for the first time since EuroVolley 2019. The French squad that lost three of their four matches during week one in Nagoya will be reinforced by a number of high-calibre stars returning to the national team to the delight of the home crowd in Orleans. These include setter Antoine Brizard, opposites Jean Patry and Stephen Boyer, outside hitters Trevor Clevenot and Yacine Louati, middle blocker Barthelemy Chinenyeze and libero Jenia Grebennikov. The best scorer of VNL 2023 so far, Theo Faure, will take some rest. However, the best receiver, Kevin Tillie, stays on the squad for the Orleans battles.

France will open their week with a game against Olympic bronze medallists Argentina on Wednesday at 21:00 local time (19:00 UTC) and will close it with Sunday’s game against Brazil at 17:30 (15:30).

Brazil, currently fifth in the table on a 3-1 win-loss record and nine points, will also be reinforced for the trip to France by the addition of star middle blocker Lucas Saatkamp (Lucao) and powerful opposite Felipe Roque. They will start off against Bulgaria on Tuesday and will also go head to head with unbeaten Japan on Thursday and Slovenia on Saturday before their encounter with the hosts on Sunday.

“We are always eager. Representing Brazil is, first of all, a pleasant task, but a task that demands a lot of responsibility. Watching from home is hell, because we get tense, we want to help. And now I'm looking forward to playing, to having the first match and helping as much as possible,” said Lucao.

Japan are certainly the team to watch this week in Orleans. They are the only team to have won all four of their matches during the first week of VNL 2023, with home victories over Iran, Serbia, Bulgaria and France. They will open the tournament in Orleans with a game against Canada on Tuesday at 13:00 (11:00). The following day they will take on VNL rookies Cuba. On Thursday, Yuki Ishikawa and his teammates will face Brazil, before the encounter with Argentina on Saturday.

Led by the tournament’s best setter so far, Luciano De Cecco, third-placed Argentina will begin the week with a game against fourth-placed Slovenia, spearheaded by the competition’s best server Tine Urnaut and second best scorer Rok Mozic. The two teams are on a 3-1 win-loss record and nine points each, below second-placed USA and above fifth-place Brazil on set ratio.

Three challenger teams complete the line-up of eight for Orleans and they all arrive on the same 1-3 win-loss record from the first week. It makes the scuffle for avoiding relegation even more exciting to watch, yet they all have their reasonable shots at making the VNL Finals in Poland.

Bulgaria have five points and stand 10th in the table. The most important change in their squad for the upcoming tournament marks the return of star libero Teodor Salparov, who has not played with the national team since January 2020. Meanwhile, rising star Aleksandar Nikolov will be with the squad for one more week before joining the junior national team in preparation for the upcoming FIVB Volleyball Men’s U21 World Championship in Bahrain.

“I feel very well with the national team and coach Plamen Konstantinov, with whom we work a lot, especially to improve my reception, and things are working out,” said Nikolov. “We are aiming at having a more successful year than the last one. We are going with the desire to put up a strong fight and win as many matches as possible.”

VNL newcomers Cuba stand 13th on three points, while Canada are 15th on two. Bulgaria will take on Canada on Thursday and Cuba on Sunday in battles that could prove important for the survival of any of these teams in the VNL for next season.

Also this week, in the Dutch city of Rotterdam, the other eight VNL 2023 participants – China, Germany, Iran, Italy, the Netherlands, Poland, Serbia and United States – will engage in the 16 Pool 3 matches.

The VNL Preliminary Phase features three competition weeks per gender, with each of the 16 teams playing a total of 12 matches. The eight best-ranked national teams in the Preliminary Phase will qualify for the Finals, which will be held in Gdansk, Poland from July 19 through 23, with the host country already with a guaranteed spot.

**Volleyball Nations League 2023: full schedule and results**

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