LEGENDARY MATCH | BRAZIL vs FRANCE | Men's VNL 2023. In front of packed stands in Orleans, Brazil disappointed the home fans with a fourset victory over France. In an exciting Volleyball Nations League 2023 Pool 3 game on Sunday, opposite Alan Souza led the South Americans to a win. After the end of the second competition week, Brazil are third in the current standings on a 62 winloss record and 19 points, below table leaders Japan (80 and 22) and secondplaced USA (71 and 21). Reigning Olympic and VNL champions France are still below the cutoff for the Finals, in 10th place on 35 and nine.

Alan Souza contributed 24 points to his team’s success. He added a kill block to the 23 spiking points he registered at a 59% success rate. Outside hitter Ricardo Lucarelli also played a key role in the match. He aced three times towards a 15point tally. Opposite Stephen Boyer led France’s scorers with 17 points.

Spearheaded by Alan in attack, Brazil established clear superiority on the court during the first set and stayed in control of the scoreboard from the beginning to the end. Felipe Roque’s successful swing brought in set point at 2420 and it was immediately converted by a French mistake in offence for 2520. Inspired by the crowd on the stands, France showed improved effort in the second set and put up an even battle. They denied Brazil’s first set point to push it to overtime, but on the second, Alan elegantly tipped the overpass with two hands to close it off at 2624.

Two aces in a row by setter Antoine Brizard at the beginning of the third set encouraged the home team to take charge on the court and quickly break away, stepping up their offence, especially with the middles, and dominating throughout. Boyer led the French spikers and crowned his efforts with the team’s last two points of the set. To close it off, he cleverly pushed the ball between the blocking hands of Ricardo Lucarelli for 2519. It was Lucarelli who started the fourth set with a perfectly placed ace, but France recovered quickly to take the lead and keep it for a while. After 1717, however, the South Americans sat in the driver’s seat and even broke away with a threepoint advantage, but once again, the Europeans fought back to draw level in the nervewracking epilogue. After 2323, a monster block by Flavio Gualberto was followed by a successful backrow swing from Alan to close the set and the match at 2523.

“It’s always, always, always hard to play against France, especially in such an amazing atmosphere. We know how powerful this extra energy can be,” said Lucarelli after the game. “And it was beautiful! We are really tired and it’s a good signal that we gave everything inside the court. The most important thing was we took the win. We needed that win for the rankings and for qualification to the Finals in Poland. We need to rest and be ready to play well in the Philippines, but now we are going to celebrate this victory. I think we deserve it.”

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