The Vnl has reached the Final Eight, the first international event reserved for national selections and a tasty prelude to the Paris Olympics. The last act of the event starts tomorrow in Lodz, Poland with the first two quarter-finals of the Final Eight and with three Block Devils chasing medals.
Kamil Semeniuk’s host Poland, seeded number two of the event, is certainly looking for the most valuable one. Coach Grbic’s players will face Brazil who finished seventh in the standings tomorrow in the quarter-finals and will also be able to count on the red and white wall of their fans at the Atlas Arena in Lodz.
Also tomorrow are the quarter-finals for captain Yuki Ishikawa’s Japan. The Japanese team, third last year, arrives at the VNL Final Eight with good expectations after fourth place in the rankings and is looking for a pass to the semi-final against Canada, fifth in the rankings.
Friday 28 June is the day of the quarter-finals for Agustin Loser’s Argentina. The Albiceleste, which entered the Final Eight on the last dive with the eighth seed, challenges Slovenia at the top of the class in the elimination round, to try to enter the top four playing for medals.
In Lodz, with the number three seed, coach De Giorgi’s Italy is also on the field on Thursday for the quarter-finals against France. The Italian coach has called up several young players for the Final Eight, leaving in Italy some of the “senators” who won the Olympic pass in the first two weeks of the event. Therefore, the bianconeri Simone Giannelli and Roberto Russo are not in Poland and since yesterday they have instead been working in Cavalese in the blue headquarters for an Olympic training camp which will end on July 1st.

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