Click here for a live gallery of all the matches of the day. 

Click here for more information, including statistics and competition programme.  

Finland vs Turkey 0:3 (14-25, 16-25, 13-25)

Turkey achieved their second victory in the competition and showed their intention to fight for the top positions of the pool after upsetting Finland in three sets, in a match convincingly dominated by the Turkish side.  

From the very beginning of the clash, Turkey tried to use their greater experience and their fault-free balance of serving and attacking, thus imposing an intense pace in the first set that Finland could not follow. The difference soon became insuperable for the Finnish side and Turkey put the final 25-14 on the scoreboard.

Finland tried to regain their pose, with Antti Vallin as main offensive reference, and the young Nordic squad kept the disadvantage to a minimum, a disparity that was always in control of the Turkish squad. Burutay Subasi’s spikes and Selcuk Keskin’s direction gave Turkey the clear lead right after the first technical time out, while Finland struggled to cut the difference of points. A spike by Ediz Kaan Firincioglu finished the set 25-16.

The victory was at reach for the Turkish side, and the squad trained by Alper Hamurcu strove to avoid the extension of the match. The idea of closing the clash in three sets so to prepare the following match of the tournament, a 9:00 am crucial encounter against France, appeared in the Turkish players’ minds. The Finnish side did not want to say its last word in the match yet, and tried to stand up against their rivals in the third period; nonetheless, Turkey confirmed their superiority through the attacks by Burutay Subasi and the spikes and blocks by Izzet Ünver. A powerful ace by Burutay Subasi represented the end of the Finns’ wishes of victory and put Turkey on route to the head of the pool. 



“We lost the previous match against Poland and we knew that the game against Finland was very important because our next match is against France. This victory against Finland was good for us, for the standings of the pool and we hope that we can win the next match too,” commented Turkish captain, Ahmet Tocoglu. 

”Turkey played a very physical match as we expected, and we had big problems coping with that today. It is a long tournament, where things go up and down. I hope this was the low point for us. Our coaching staff and scouts will now have a look at the next two opponents and find out a way to win those matches. That is our only goal,” said Finnish captain Toni Kankaanpää.

Azerbaijan vs France 0:3 (17-25, 16-25, 18-25)

Les Bleus had a short day at the office in Crystal Hall as they downed the home heroes of Azerbaijan in straight sets in 74 minutes.

In the first set Toafa Takaniko, setter of France, directed his teammates to all thinkable attacking positions by the net making the Azerbaijani blocks permeable. From the very first serve of the match the 30 year old Takaniko displayed his skills distributing the Mikasa to all of the French team who took turn in scoring. He and France took the lead from point 1 and just increased it until they reached the 25 mark leaving Azerbaijan with 17 points.

France seemed to be in a hurry in today’s match as they continued their power demonstration in the second set against a stunned Azerbaijani team. Again Toafa Takaniko was setting the pace, and the green shirted opponent could not keep up. 24 minutes was all France needed to close the set 25-16 making it 2-0.

In the beginning of the third set Azerbaijan experienced a new thing, as they took the lead for the first time in the match. It lasted until 2:2, before the spikes of Les Bleus, dressed in red for today’s match, again was challenging the floor structure of Crystal Hall. With several service rockets above 100 km/h France slammed their way back in the tournament with 25-18 in the last set.

“We have played a very serious match, very firm in our set points. We were able to undermine the confidence of the Azerbaijani team because of our solidity and our precision, and from that moment on, the match became simpler for us,” declared the mentor of France, Marc Francastel.

“I think we got to see an experience gap today between our team and France. Furthermore we are dealing with a couple of injuries. This team needs time to develop, and therefore it is a great opportunity for all of the players to experience a huge tournament like this. I will not talk about excuses, today we faced a stronger team,” said Bülent Karslioglu, the coach of Azerbaijan.

Serbia vs Poland 2:3 (25-13, 25-21, 15-25, 23-25, 9-15)

The last match of the day was a battle for the third position in Pool A. Poland was down 0:2 but managed to fight back and forcing the match into their third tiebreak of the tournament. Yet again Poland managed to win it (13-25, 21-25, 25-15, 25-23, 15-9).

Serbia came out to the first set like lightning. Poland on the other hand seemed a bit tired, maybe influenced by the two tiebreaks the team had been in their first two matches. Serbian setter Mihajlo Mitic kept a quick pace and distributed the green and yellow Mikasa in even shares to his teammates, though with Milan Rasic and Konstantin Cupkovic scoring the most points with 6 and 5 respectively. The race to 25 was over in 22 minutes as Mihajlo Mitic closed the set himself with a kill block.

Poland got their breath in the break to the second set. The red-shirted Polish team managed to speed up the pace and found themselves in the lead until 14. Then Mr. Mitic from Serbia picked up the ball to serve and did that five times in a row making it 18-14 increasing the pace by the point. Serbia simply had an extra gear who gave them a 25-21 win making it 2-0.

As the clock passed midnight in Baku, Poland found the clutch and sped up their scoring in the third set. Meanwhile Serbia almost stalled and no matter what their coach, Sinisa Reljic, did to change the outcome, Poland had had too much of a head start crossing the finish line of the set ahead with 10 points, 25-15.  

While the first three sets of the match most of all reminded of a one way highway for one of the teams at the time, Poland and Serbia found the same pace in the fourth set that developed itself into a drag race. Starting off slowly the two teams fought an all even fight and followed each other until the very end of the set. Poland got the first set point, and Jan Nowakowski took over the wheels and sent the midnight match into tiebreak with a kill block marking the floor in Crystal Hall like skid marks, 25-23.

Poland got away from Serbia right from the start of the tiebreak and had a 4 point lead when the two teams changed sides 8-4. And as Dawid Konarski continued his rocket fueled spike and block show, Poland made the great comeback a reality, turning 0:2 into 3:2 in the team’s third straight tiebreak win.