EuroVolley semi-finals: Turkey–Serbia and Poland–Italy battle for a place in the final

The European Women’s Volleyball Championship has reached its penultimate stage. Today, at Istanbul’s Sinan Erdem Dome, the two finalists who will compete for the European crown will be decided.

Four of the continent’s biggest volleyball powers remain in contention. From 4:00 PM Local time, hosts and reigning European champions Turkey will face Serbia in a rematch of the EuroVolley 2023 final. Then, from 7:00 PM, Poland will take on Olympic and world champions Italy in a rivalry whose history at the European Championship dates back 75 years.

Turkey–Serbia: a rematch of the 2023 final

The first semi-final could hardly offer a more compelling storyline. Turkey and Serbia meet again three years after the EuroVolley 2023 final, when the Turkish side prevailed in a dramatic 3–2 battle to claim the European title for the first time.
Now, Turkey is defending its crown on home soil, in front of what is expected to be another passionate Istanbul crowd.
The hosts booked their place in the semi-finals with a 3–1 victory over Germany (25–18, 22–25, 25–18, 25–22), their second 3–1 win over the Germans in this year’s tournament. Melissa Vargas once again led the way with 26 points, including 12 in the fourth set alone.

The atmosphere in Istanbul will be one of Turkey’s biggest weapons. A crowd of 12,314 attended the quarter-final against Germany, offering a clear indication of what Serbia can expect today.

Serbia, however, arrives with enormous experience of matches at this stage of major tournaments. Zoran Terzić’s team swept Greece 3–0 (25:14, 25:20, 25:17) in the quarter-finals to reach the European Championship semi-finals for the eighth consecutive time.
Tijana Bošković led Serbia with 17 points against Greece, while Aleksandra Uzelac added 15 and Branka Tica contributed 12.

Turkey head coach Daniele Santarelli, meanwhile, has dismissed the significance of everything his team has achieved earlier this season, including its Nations League triumph.

“What we have done so far is worth less than zero. Especially the Nations League is worth less than zero.”

For the Italian coach, the psychological side of the game and motivation could be decisive against Serbia. Turkey will also count heavily on the energy generated by its home crowd.

Santarelli is expecting a “beautiful battle” against a Serbian side that combines experience, quality and considerable individual talent.

The semi-final will also feature a Bulgarian refereeing presence. Vanya Parvanova has been appointed second referee, just two days after serving as first referee in Turkey’s 3–1 quarter-final victory over Germany. The first referee today will be Greece’s Theodora Kyriopoulou.

Poland–Italy: 75 years of history and an 8–8 record

If the first semi-final is shaped by a relatively recent rivalry for the European crown, the second carries 75 years of history.
Poland and Italy have met 16 times at the European Championship, with the record perfectly balanced at eight victories apiece. Even the overall set record underlines just how close the rivalry has been: 29–27 in Italy’s favour.
Their first European Championship meeting took place on September 16, 1951, in Paris, ending in a 3–0 victory for Poland.
The Polish side won the first five European encounters between the teams, through 1981, with Italy managing to take just a single set during that period.
The turning point came in 1983 in Cottbus, when Italy recorded its first victory, winning 3–0. From there, the balance gradually shifted. In the 11 European Championship meetings that followed, Italy won eight.
More recent history has been even more favourable to the Azzurre: Italy have won seven of their last nine European Championship matches against Poland.
Their most recent meeting at EuroVolley came on September 8, 2019, in Ankara, where Italy won 3–0. Just ten days earlier, however, Poland had prevailed 3–2 in the same tournament — the only one of their 16 European Championship encounters to go the distance.
Today, though, Italy enters the semi-final from a very different position.
Julio Velasco’s team are the reigning Olympic and world champions and are now pursuing the European title that would complete an extraordinary championship treble.

The Italians had to overcome their toughest challenge of the tournament so far in the quarter-finals, beating Sweden 3–1 (21:25, 26:24, 25:21, 25:23). Paola Egonu led the way with 27 points, while Ekaterina Antropova added 22.

Poland, meanwhile, arrive in Istanbul with plenty of confidence of their own.
The Polish side defeated the Netherlands 3–1 (25:16, 20:25, 25:20, 25:23), producing an impressive 17 blocks. Maja Koput and Magdalena Jurczyk contributed five each.

The victory also ended a long wait: it was Poland’s first European Championship win over the Netherlands since 1983.
For Poland, the stakes could hardly be higher. This is their first EuroVolley semi-final since 2019, while the country has been waiting for a European Championship medal since winning bronze in 2009.

Santarelli, however, sees a clear favourite in the second semi-final.
“I think Italy is the favourite, a clear favourite,” the Turkish coach said.

In his view, one of Poland’s potential advantages could be the difference in pressure between the two sides. Italy have been among the world’s leading teams for years and arrive at every major tournament with the expectation of winning it. For Poland, simply returning to the European top four represents an important step forward.

And so Istanbul prepares for a decisive day featuring four teams with very different histories, but exactly the same objective.
Turkey are defending their European crown in front of their home fans. Serbia are looking to avenge the 2023 final and claim their first European title since 2019.
Poland are chasing their first European Championship medal in 17 years.
And Italy are seeking the one title missing from their recent collection of major honours — a European crown to add to their Olympic and world titles.

By the end of the night, only two of them will still be standing.