France - Belgium (full match)

Belgium struggled through five sets against France, but in the end "Les Bleus" prevailed 3:2 (25:14, 21:25, 25:20, 22:25, 15:12). The point earned wasn’t enough for Belgium, as they are out of contest and having lost 8 of their last 10 World Champs. matches. Bram Van Den Dries sparked the Belgian hopes with a match-high of 23 points, but it wasn’t enough to make it through. France was led by Kevin Tillie’s 18 points, while Antonin Rouzier and Earvin Ngapeth contributed with 16 points and 15 pointsrespectively. The final set had a thrilling twist, as French libero Jenia Grebennikov had to leave court due to a broken finger, replaced by N'Gapeth. On the press conference, Laurent Tillie - France coach said: "When we saw the draw, I thought 'this is not a good Group for us'. We were focused on Puerto Rico and Belgium, but this week has been magical for us, we played so well in defence. The main factor was to always believe in our team. Grebennikov will have X-ray, we are afraid he's got a fracture. We keep our fingers crossed for no fractures, but if he won't be able to play, we have our second libero with us."

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