Red Dragons stun Les Bleus in friendly match ahead of Olympic qualifier

Belgium’s Red Dragons caused a sensation on Tuesday night in their friendly match with the gold medal winners from the 2015 FIVB Volleyball World League and men’s EuroVolley from France by cruising to a commanding 3:0 victory (25-23, 25-22, 25-18) in a friendly match played in Tours. This is quite a boost of confidence for the Red Dragons only one week away from their debut at the men’s European Olympic qualification tournament, which is due to start on January 5 in Berlin, Germany.

2015 European gold medallists France were playing their first match since claiming a historic continental crown back on October 18 in Sofia, Bulgaria, but they were caught by surprise in their clash with the Red Dragons. Les Bleus had come together and resumed training only on Saturday and therefore they had some troubles to find their best game right from the go. France’s mentor Laurent Tillie opted for his usual starting six but the hosts trailed already by the first technical time-out of the opening set (5:8). France closed in and the two teams exchanged the lead back and forth up to 19 all but even though Earvin Ngapeth and Antonin Rouzier combined their efforts to score 11 points, the visitors from Belgium had the upper hand at 23-25.

France stormed back in the second set claiming a 14:10 lead mainly via the contribution of Kevin Tillie and Nicolas Le Goff. However, Belgium continued to perform well and anchored by their left-handed, powerful opposite Gert Van Walle – who plays in France’s national league for BEAUVAIS Oise – the Red Dragons flipped the charts around and eventually brought to set to a happy end at 25-22.

The Red Dragons continued to impose their rule also in the third set which ended in a pretty impressive 25-18 score as France could not display their best performance notwithstanding the support from the audience in attendance and the addition of Nicolas Maréchal to their starting six.

“We bumped into a very good Belgian team and tonight they caused us many problems, especially in reception,” commented French mentor Laurent Tillie. “We made a lot of mistakes and I can’t remember of a match where we made as many mistakes, at serving and attacking, as we had tonight. As a result, we could not find our rhythm and this shows that there is still work to be done before the Olympic qualifier coming up next week,” he continued.

Les Bleus and the Red Dragons will be playing a second friendly match on Wednesday, this time behind closed doors.