On Thursday, at 18:00 local time (21:00 UTC), United States will lock horns with France for a spot in Friday’s gold medal match. The French have so far dropped only a couple of sets in six matches played. On Wednesday, they hammered out a shutout of Egypt, led by Thomas Pujol with 16 points and captain Mathis Henno with 13.
In the last quarterfinal in Argentina, Korea surprised Italy with a sweep. With the exception of the second set, when the Asians dominated quite convincingly, the match offered a tough battle with both other sets pushed to overtime.
The Europeans were, in fact, way more productive in attack with 43 successful swings against 33 for the opponents. Korea, however, did better on the block (11 stuffs against seven), on the serve (three aces against two) and mostly in making fewer mistakes (15 against 33). One of those abundant Italian unforced errors, a first-tempo shot that went long, ended the match in favour of Korea. Italian captain Lorenzo Magliano was the best scorer of the match with 19 points, including an ace and three blocks, while Lee Woojin led the winners with 18, also including three blocks.