It was enough for the Blues to take a set against the Netherlands on Wednesday evening in Berlin to win their ticket to the semi-finals of the Olympic qualification tournament and continue to dream of the Tokyo Olympics. And that’s about all that did the men of Laurent Tillie, who finished the game by walking, finally defeated in the tie-break (25-21, 25-20, 22-25, 19-25, 11-15) by a team already eliminated and which had not previously won a tournament set.
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But ultimately, the Blues may have won everything on Wednesday. They avoided some cold sweats by making the difference of entry (25-21) during a first controlled race. They were able to rest their frames, who quickly put on their tracksuits once the qualification in pocket, allowing at the same time the replacements to make juice -Yacine Louati, once again interesting with 13 points, the sharp point of Chaumont Julien Winkelmuller, 9 points (8 out of 21) for his first in Blue, Timothée Carle (8 points) …-, in preparation for the semi-final of the TQO.
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This will be held from Thursday at 5 p.m. (live on the L’Equipe channel) against Slovenia runner-up in Europe. The key is a final against Bulgaria or Germany on Friday, the stake of which would be a ticket to Tokyo.
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Patry again untenable
The Blues had entered their match with great concentration, impeccable in reception and effective in attack (16 out of 24, ie 67% success). During this decisive first set, all players of the six holder (Chinenyeze, Toniutti, Ngapeth, Le Goff, Patry, Tillie) scored points in a perfectly oiled game distributed by Captain Toniutti. The pointed Latina Jean Patry, after hovering individually over the first two matches of the TQO (22 points against Serbia, 20 against Bulgaria), stood out again with 6 points and a single failure.
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While the Netherlands, led by Abdel-Aziz Nimir (16 points on the match) and Wouter Ter Maat (14) offered a good resistance and that no team had managed to take two points ahead approaching money-time (16-17), the Blues pressed the accelerator at the right time, passing a 5-1 which put them in orbit (21-18). Earvin Ngapeth (5 points in the first run) tore up on a defense and concluded to offer the first break (19-17). In the process, he urged Nimir to divert his trajectory on a smash (21-18). Jean Patry then adjusted a new praline (23-19) and Benjamin Toniutti concluded the deal with the service a few moments later.
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The rest of the evening was anecdote. The Blues took place in the second set (25-20), then finished the freewheeling game, losing a seventh tie-break in a row. That didn’t stop the starters from smiling on the bench, as did their coach Laurent Tillie, who knew things were serious for Thursday.
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