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Luck and skill on the French's way to the medal

France beat Brazil last year and in the middle of Rio left them without World League semi-finals. Brazil won in the last head-to-head two weeks ago with 3-1, but there was no lack of drama

Brazil are the only team of this Final Six who won both matches in the group. After 3-0 against Italy, they beat the USA in a five-set drama which could have easily, and maybe it should have, gone to the other side.

Selector Rezende sent out the second-team players in the game, from the team who played against Italy there was only receiver Borges. They didn't look good at the start, there were a lot of problems in the offense and counter-attacks, and young  receiver Douglas looked especially bad.

- There were certain problems in our game throughout the first two sets, but the players' wish was stronger than that. It's important that we've won because of creating the winning mentality - said one of the heroes of the turnover, receiver Fonteles.

Rezende put Fonteles in the game into the third set, and he paid back by calming down the game and recording nine points. Opposite Guerra was fantastic with 25 points,, Borges recorded 13, and middle blockers Eder and Isaac added 12 and 10 points.

- When you're playing against the USA, you always learn something. We don't have talents the way we had before, but we have a strong team spirit and that came in handy today - Rezende was pleased.

The title defenders somehow made it through. They needed any kind of win against Serbia in the last round, and they were on the verge of losing the 2-0 set advantage. They were holding back in the first two sets, they were falling behind two to four points until the second technical time-out, and then their serve worked through.

In the first set from 15-16 they came to 22-16 thanks to Marechal's serves, and in second to Le Roux. The 10-minute break didn't favor them; the same thing that happened against Poland repeated. They lost the third set 24-26 after which they made up for the 12-17 minus and took the lead with 20-19, while in the fourth set they dropped the three-point advantage in the early phase of the match.

Still, in the fifth set they tied three points at Rouzier's serve at 8-9 and concluded the match with block on Kovacevic. The Rouzier-N'Gapeth duo led France with 42 points combined (22+20). Marechal followed them with 18 points and contributed to the win. They had a lot of defensive blocks which the defense "swept" and enabled counter-attacks, but the serve was flawless and they caused a lot of trouble for Serbia.

- I'm happy for passing into the semi-finals, but it wasn't just about volleyball - said Laurent Tillie referring to the Nice terrorist attack, and added: - Nice is my hometown, some players have families here and we weren't focused 100% on volleyball. We wanted to show the joy of life in game, and I think we made it.

They slithered through to the semi-finals, that's clear. However, they made it last year too among the top four teams and made it all the way to the end.

Brazil and France have used the potential of their players since 2013 (at the time France was taken over by Laurent Tillie), they played six head-to-heads out of which one was friendly, and the numbers are terrifying. The points were: 189, 13, 206 (in four sets), 213, 195 and 209. The average of points on this six matches is 204.1, and even if we disregard the friendly (213), we're on an average of 202 points which is far more than today's margin. For comparison's sake, we can take matches with the same teams in World League, so Brazil have a big over with Belgium, as well as France; under with Poland (I'm not counting the French over on Final Six because Poland finally played as a whole team), and interestingly enough that in the two out of three matches in which Brazil were the favorites, they lost. Brazil left a better impression in Krakow, but France definitely have a team who can deal with their game. Besides, N'Gapeth and company are masters for tour matches. Six uncertain matches of these teams are no coincidence, today details should decide the winners, and I see this match at 188+ points, just like the last one two weeks ago. The offered margin is tied to the odds on Brazil which are unrealistic.