Women’s European Championship: Italvolley Finishes the Group Stage on a High Note—France Defeated, First Place Secured

The women’s national volleyball team wrapped up Group D of the 2026 European Championships with its fifth win in as many matches: at the Scandinavium in Gothenburg, the team coached by Julio Velasco defeated France 3-1, thereby securing first place in the standings. The set scores were 25-19, 19-25, 25-23, and 25-19 in favor of the Azzurre, who—throughout the group stage—lost only one set, against France, out of the fifteen they won.

In terms of individual performances, the top scorer was Paola Egonu with 20 points, followed on the Italian team by Kate Antropova with 13 and Sarah Fahr with 10. Myriam Sylla also played well, scoring 8 points, as did Anna Danesi, who finished with 7. On the other side, Cyrielle Depie’s 18 points, Lilou Ratahiry’s 17, and Amandha Sylves’ 10 were not enough: for France, this marks their first loss in this European Championship following 3-0 victories over Slovakia, Croatia, and Montenegro.

The women’s Italian national volleyball team thus finishes the group stage with a perfect record, qualifying alongside France and Sweden (the fourth-place finisher is still to be decided among Croatia, Slovakia, and Montenegro) and will travel to Brno to face the fourth-place team from Group B: Ukraine and Bulgaria are vying for that spot, while Serbia, the Czech Republic, and Greece secured the top three spots in that group.

The 2026 tournament marks the tenth consecutive edition of the Women’s European Championships in which Italy has advanced past the group stage: the last time they failed to do so was in 2003, when the Azzurre finished third in their group and advanced to the fifth-place playoff. Since then, the women’s national team has always managed to reach the knockout stage.