France successfully defended its Olympic title from Tokyo 2020 after defeating Poland 3:0 (25:19, 25:20, 25:23) in front of a home crowd. Andrea Giani's boys played with maximum concentration, making fewer mistakes than the FIVB ranking leader, while at the same time outperforming them in blocks and service points. The most effective player for the Olympic champions was Patry, who had 17 points (2 blocks and 1 ace), followed by Clevenot with 11 (1 block and 1 ace). Chinenyeze and Ngapeth (1 block and 1 ace) each contributed 8 points.

For the Olympic silver medalists, Kurek scored 10 points (1 ace), and Leon (2 aces) and Kochanowski (1 block) each had 9. This was the first final for the "Polish team" in 48 years, and in the last five editions of the games, they have finished fifth.

The most interesting part of the match was the final set, in which the teams battled to 14:14, after which the Poles took the lead, following a good inclusion of the 13th reserve, Boladz, who replaced Kurek. Another equalization followed at 17:17. After the timeout for the "Polish team," Ngapeth and Huber exchanged service errors. And then came the "hour" of the substitute Quentin Jouffroy. After his float serve, France took the lead, followed by another strong serve and a drop by Patry, which forced Nikola Grbić to call a second timeout. An out-of-bounds attack by Leon followed, who was replaced by Semeniuk. Again, France's "golden substitute" made a second ace, fixing the score at 23:18. The first match point for the title came after a technical wrist shot by Clevenot in the center of Poland's court. Boladz managed to overturn the serve, allowing Leon to return to the service line. His powerful serve forced Ngapeth to make a mistake in serving the ball. After France's timeout, an ace by Leon against Ngapeth followed. Another powerful serve by the Cuban with a Polish passport made it easier for Kochanowski, who brought the score to 24:23 for France. Leon again ended the match after his serve, hit at 126 kilometers per hour, went out of bounds. France is the new old Olympic champion!

Les Bleus (The Blues, in French) became the third nation to successfully defend an Olympic title in men's volleyball and the first in 36 years - the former USSR did it first, winning in Tokyo 1964 and Mexico City 1968, while the United States did the same in Los Angeles 1984 and Seoul 1988.

Now with two gold medals in Olympic history, France was also only the third men's national team to enjoy the incredible experience of winning the Games at home, joining the former USSR (Moscow 1980), the United States (Los Angeles 1984), and Brazil (Rio 2016).

With ten members of the team that won gold in Tokyo three years ago as part of the squad in Paris, the French had ups and downs during the preliminary group but found their rhythm during their quarter-final victory over Germany and then simply became unstoppable, sweeping world champions Italy in the semi-finals and world number one Poland in the gold medal match.

The big victory over Poland moved the Olympic champions to second place in the world rankings with 378.07 points. Poland remains in first place with 401.31.

photos :volleyballworld.com