European Championship

BERLIN, Germany, 14 September - Four years after winning the European Title for the last time, Italy took the European Championship back here in Berlin, Germany on Sunday. The three times World Champion defeated France in an extremely spectacular final (3-2), watched by almost 9,000 spectators. Russia claimed the bronze medal after defeating defending champion Serbia & Montenegro 3-1.

Italy was not the real favorite for the European Title this year. The Squadra Azzura, who was the best volleyball squad of the world in the '90s, didn't win a major event since the 1999 European Championship. With the new coach Gian Paolo Montali, Italy played a great tournament here in Germany and was the right champion. In the seven matches played, Italy didn't lose one and only lost four sets in the entire tournament.

The final was one of the exiting matches played in the history of European volleyball. Italy took the first set and was leading by five points in the middle of the second one. This was the moment for France to start fighting. 'Les Bleus' surprised during the event where the best 12 teams of the world's strongest volleyball continent met by great defense and a perfect fighting spirit. France leveled the match by winning the second set 42-40, a record for European Championships volleyball.

After Italy won the third set, the 2001 silver medallist had a match point at 24-23 in the fourth set. After a long and exciting rally, France saved the match point and even won the set. In the fifth set, Italy took immediately a big lead.

Two aces of Luigi Mastrangelo, the best blocker of the tournament, put Italy in the driving seat. Italy won the championship on the third match point and took over the title from Olympic Champion Serbia & Montenegro.

Russia claimed the bronze medal after defeating defending champion and Olympic gold medallist Serbia & Montenegro 3-1. Both teams were disappointed not playing the final, because they not only lost an opportunity to get qualified for the World Cup, the first Olympic Qualification tournament to be held in Japan in November.'The victory is at least a small relief for our fans, but we are not satisfied,' Russian coach Guennadi Chipouline said. 'We wanted more than the bronze medal.'

The Men's European Championship has been a great success. Lots of volleyball fans were present in the German cities of Karlsruhe, Leipzig and Berlin during the last ten days. Almost 140,000 fans passed the entry gates. 'I would like to thank the German Volleyball Federation for organizing this event in a perfect way,' CEV President Andre Meyer stated. 'For the first time, there was more than 300 hours of television coverage, thanks also to the excellent co-operation with our partner Eurosport. I have been in Karlsruhe, Leipzig and Berlin and saw great matches watched by a lot of spectators. This tournament was a very successful one, thanks to the co-operation between the CEV and the German Volleyball Federation and its President Werner von Moltke.'

The next Men's European Championship will be held in 2005 in Serbia & Montenegro and Italy.

FINAL: ITA - FRA 3-2 (25-18, 40-42, 25-18, 27-29, 15-9)
Classification 3-4: RUS - SCG 3-1 (25-11, 24-26, 25-19, 25-23)
Classification 5-6: NED - POL 0-3 (21-25, 20-25, 13-25)
Classification 7-8: ESP - GER 1-3 (26-28, 25-21, 19-25, 26-28)

Final Ranking

1. ITA => Qualified for World Cup
2. FRA => Qualified for World Cup
3. RUS
4. SCG
5. POL
6. NED
7. GER
8. ESP
9. CZE
9. BUL
11. GRE
11. SVK