France and Romania will repeat one of the EuroVolley 2023 quarterfinals in Varna, but this time the stage will be Sofia. The French defeated Portugal 3-0 (25:21, 25:22, 25:21) and joined the Romanians among the top eight teams at EuroVolley 2026.
The match carries an interesting historical reference to the championship three years ago. Then, Romania surprised France in the group stage with a 3-1 (25:23, 16:25, 25:18, 25:21) victory, but subsequently, the two teams met again – in the quarterfinal in Varna.
There, the French did not allow a second surprise. They won 3-0 (25:22, 25:14, 27:25) and ended Romania's strongest performance at a European Championship in decades.
Now the Romanians once again stand in France's way, and the parallel with 2023 is even stronger. In the group stage in Cluj-Napoca, they again defeated "Les Bleus," this time after an impressive comeback from 0-2 to 3-2 (16:25, 25:27, 25:20, 35:33, 15:12).
Romania carried the momentum into the eliminations. In the round of 16 in Sofia, the team eliminated Ukraine 3-0 (25:22, 25:21, 30:28) and reached the quarterfinals for the second consecutive European Championship.
France, for its part, did not give Portugal many opportunities. The Olympic champion closed the match in three sets, with Trevor Clevenot and Mathis Enard scoring 12 points each, and Théo Faure adding 10. For the Portuguese, Alexandre Ferreira and Lourenço Martins finished with 13 points each.
Thus, Sofia will see a kind of continuation of the story from Varna. Both in 2023 and 2026, Romania defeated France in the group stage, after which the draw brought them together again among the last eight.
Three years ago, France took revenge and advanced to the semifinals. Now Romania gets a second chance to change the outcome of an already familiar scenario.

photo: Nikolay Varadinov