23/01/2019 16:00
EuroVolley 2019 Women – Get ready for an exciting group stage!
CEV EuroVolley 2019 Women
Istanbul, Turkey, January 23, 2019. Only a couple of hours after completion of the Drawing of Lots held at the Basketmakers’ Kiosk in Istanbul, the 24 teams participating in the historic CEV EuroVolley 2019 Women know how their journey in the pool stage of the tournament looks like. The competition will start on August 23 in Ankara, Lodz, Budapest and Bratislava with three matches at each venue and continue through the end of the group phase with another two matches a day. The tournament will reach its climax on September 8 at Baskent Volleyball Hall in the Turkish capital – where the new ‘Queens of European Volleyball’ will be crowned!
In a real ‘pool of death’, co-hosts Turkey will open their campaign playing their neighbours from Greece, but the ‘big match’ will come on the last day of pool action in Ankara, when the ‘Sultans of the Net’ will take on reigning world champions Serbia. This matchup is very much likely to determine who will finish top of the charts as earlier in the competition Turkey play Bulgaria in another exciting Balkan derby that will draw much attention from fans and media alike.
As for Pool B, hosts Poland will be locking horns with Slovenia on the opening day in Lodz before this stage of the tournament reaches its climax on the last day with the matchup featuring Poland and Italy. As the silver medallists of the last World Championship held in Japan, Italy are the major force to reckon with in Lodz in a pool featuring Belgium, Ukraine and Portugal as well.
The programme in Pool C is not much different since hosts Hungary will begin their quest for glory against rookies Estonia, who are making their first-ever EuroVolley appearance. Hungary will be playing the Netherlands, silver medal winners from the 2017 edition, on the last day of pool play at Papp Laszlo Arena in Budapest.
Pool D features the most successful team in EuroVolley history – i.e. Russia, who will play co-hosts Slovakia on the last day of pool action, i.e. on August 29, 2019. Slovakia will start their journey in the tournament with, at least on paper, more affordable opponents in Spain, Switzerland and Belarus, before playing the two powerhouses drawn in Pool D – Germany and Russia.
The CEV will confirm the start times of all matches in due course.
For further information, visit the official website http://eurovolley.cev.eu.
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