Swiss volleyball players face a crucial week

With two narrow 3:2 victories against Spain and Sweden a year ago, the team of national coach Juan Manuel Serramalera has established a good starting position in Group E of the European Championship qualifiers. To reach the 2026 finals in Bulgaria, Finland, Italy and Romania, it will be enough to either win the group or finish among the top five runners-up.

At the halfway stage of qualifying, the Swiss are level on points with Sweden in first place - with a slight advantage thanks to winning the first leg. However, they cannot afford to slip up in the second legs. Points are urgently needed both on Wednesday in Alicante against Spain and on Saturday in Schönenwerd against Sweden. In order to pick up a point in the event of a defeat, they need to win two sets.

Serramalera was optimistic after intensive preparation with five wins in six test matches: "Overall, we have worked well as a team in recent weeks and are clearly a few steps ahead of last year. We are therefore very much looking forward to the upcoming European Championship qualifiers and are excited to see whether we can achieve our big goal - participation in the European Championship."

This would be only the second time that the Swiss men's national team has qualified for a European Championship final round on a sporting level, following their successful debut in 2023.

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