Berlin, Germany, January 10, 2020 - France booked the ticket to the Olympic Games 2020 in Tokyo with a stunning 3-0 (25-20, 25-20, 25-23) win against host Germany in the final of the CEV Men's Tokyo Volleyball Qualification tournament in Berlin. It was the second time in a row that the French Team will go to the Olympics while Germany miss the biggest sports event in the world for the second consecutive time.
France captain Benjamin Toniutti was overjoyed. “It was a perfect match. We played amazingly well for two sets. Also the third set we played well. We missed more serves, but we kept our focus and we found a solution to win. And it was an unbelievable day. Yesterday we came back, I don’t know how, but today we just played perfect volleyball and we got the ticket to Tokyo.”
France coach Laurent Tillie mirrored his captain's feelings. “I’m happy and it was a perfect match because we respected the detail of the game. Our game plan was perfect and we were very focused on what we had to do. That’s incredible, because we were tired, exhausted, but we focused. We had to change some things during the match, but we had a good reception and we spiked exactly where we had to spike, so it was perfect.”
Germany captain Lukas Kampa congratulated France for their performance. "Well, congratulations to the French. I think deservedly they won... with the pressure they built on serves, which you had’t seen in a match before. We had accordingly big problems to build such a pressure through our serves at the same time. And that’s why we weren’t as close to winning a set or the game today. And that’s tough, but I think that’s what it was.”
Germany coach Andrea Giani agreed. “France played very well. I think they are a team which has shown 100 per cent in their serve. Four guys were excellent in their serve. They worked very well in the block and the defence and it was not easy. In volleyball we think about mistakes or you have a bad reception. But no, it is more. Their serve in the first set was a really good serve. We tried to find solutions, to stay in the match. We tried it in the third set, we tried it the whole time. But we made too many mistakes today. I don’t like thinking about losing a match. My philosophy is to think about the tournament. We played well, but this was the last match. This, for us, was the last chance to go to Tokyo. Bravo to the guys of France.”
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