Belgium became the first team to hand defending champion Italy a loss in the 2025 FIVB Men’s Volleyball World Championship.
Belgium capped off a day of upsets at the 2025 FIVB Men’s Volleyball World Championship as they derailed defending champions Italy in a five-set thriller, 25-23, 25-20, 22-25, 21-25, 15-13, in Pool F at the Smart Araneta Coliseum late Tuesday night.
Though momentum shifted to Italy after forcing the fifth set, Belgium remained steadfast to officially clinch a spot in the Round of 16.
Shaking off a service error from Pierre Perin that tied the fifth at 13-all, Ferre Regers scored the last two of his 31 points in the next two rallies to clinch the victory for Belgium, helping them improve to 2-0 and assuring themselves of a Top 2 finish in the group.
Reggers did the heavy lifting for Belgium with Sam Deroo as the next leading scorer with 17 points.
Mattia Bottolo paced the defending champions in the tightly contested match with 17 markers as well.
The match lasted over two hours and ended close to midnight in Manila.
Beligum thus fights for the top spot in the pool when they face Algeria on Thursday, September 18, at 2 p.m.
Meanwhile, Italy will engage in a virtual battle for the last spot against Ukraine in the curtain closer for the preliminary round in Araneta Coliseum also on Thursday at 9:30 p.m.
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Luisa Morales is a sports writer with a special interest in promoting women’s sports.
Her coverage highlights include the UAAP, PVL, Southeast Asian Games, and the FIBA World Cup. She also follows Alex Eala, the Philippine women’s national football team, and mixed martial arts.