“
This is not an end, there are two steps left.
“The feat against Poland is not enough for Laurent Tillie.
Nor to his volleyball players, "
very vengeful
»- word of Earvin Ngapeth - before returning to Argentina in the semi-final Thursday (2:00 pm).
Triumphing over Facundo Conte and his band would appropriately complete the nine years of service of the coach of the Blues.
A success would be the assurance of an Olympic medal, the first in the history of French volleyball that Laurent Tillie has taken to unprecedented heights: the first titles - Euro 2015, World Leagues 2015 and 2017 -, a first quarter-final Olympic Tuesday and now the last four of the Games.
And then, after the third group match that left Benjamin Toniutti and his family almost eliminated, the Argentines are a target.
To discover
The full Olympic program
The Olympic medal table
"
Survivors
", miraculously after their 3-2 setback against them, the Blues have dropped heads since they escaped a new elimination in the first round: that of the Russians, almost that of the Brazilians (four match points) and finally that of the double Polish world champions in the quarter-finals. "
This is the third feat we have done, so we are starting to get used to it,
" pretends Laurent Tillie. After three difficult matches, his players have regained their defense of every moment, an endurance of steel against Poland. Earvin Ngapeth, Jenia Grebennikov and Trévor Clévenot remained inflexible against the blows of Wilfredo Leon and Bartosz Kurek. "
It's true that from the match against Russia, we started to play as we know how to do, once we let go, we had the impression that we had nothing more to lose. and we found each other,
”describes the ferryman Antoine Brizard.
“
Now, I don't think this level of play is so surprising, because we know that we are able to play like that, we also know that we sometimes have two faces, we have seen these two faces in this competition.
"
We are not stronger than the Argentines, they made extraordinary performances
Bartholomew Chinenyeze
By pushing them to the brink of elimination, their Argentinian setback freed the Blues "
a little stressed, not in
", when they entered the Olympic tournament, according to central Barthélémy Chinenyeze. "
Since that match (Argentina, editor's note), I think we've found new energy on the pitch,
" feels the sharp Jean Patry. “
A new game that looks more like us. We are ready.
However, no way, now that they have brought down the great Polish favorites to see each other already in the final. "
We are not stronger than the Argentines, they made extraordinary performances
", recalls Chinenyeze. “
They put the United States 3-0, we didn't expect that. There, they beat Italy (3-2) in the quarters.
"
Same story with Brizard: “
For the moment, we are not thinking of gold at all, not even a medal, we are only focused on Argentina, we say to ourselves that this semi-final will go to be extremely hard, we have repeatedly said to ourselves that there is no additional pressure to be had, it is not because it is Argentina which is a priori weaker than Poland that we must put more pressure, especially since the Argentines have been huge since the start of the tournament.
"And Laurent Tillie concludes:" We are both survivors. And Thursday night, there will only be one who will play the title.
