– 0:3 with Brazil (Athens 2004), 2:3 with Italy (Beijing 2008), 0:3 with Russia (London 2012), 0:3 with the United States (Rio de Janeiro 2016), 2:3 with France (Tokyo 2021) – these are the results of the Polish national team in the previous quarter-finals of the Olympic Games. Five quarter-final losses, it sounds unbelievable, considering that in the last 20 years, Polish volleyball players have become world champions twice and won gold at the European Championships the same number of times – wrote Jakub Trochimowicz from Sport.pl.
On Monday, Polish volleyball players once again had a chance to advance to the semi-finals of the Olympic Games. The task was not easy, because our opponents were the Slovenians, the leading team in Europe, against whom the White and Reds have had a very hard time playing in recent years.
In the end, Poland was much better than Slovenia, beating them 3:1 (25:20, 24:26, 25:19, 25:20). With this, Nikola Grbić's team lifted the Olympic curse and advanced to the semi-finals!
Scenes after Poland's victory in the quarterfinals of the Olympic Games. Bartosz Kurek in the leading role
Right after Monday's match, one of the most experienced players in the Polish team – Bartosz Kurek – appeared in front of Eurosport cameras. The 35-year-old received a white card with the words “CURSE OF THE QUARTERFINAL” written on it from commentators – Kacper Merek and Andrzej Wrona – and was then asked to tear it up. However, the 35-year-old decided to crush it and throw it into the air with all his strength. Afterwards, the commentators went crazy with joy. “Yes, yeeees!” they shouted.
The fans' reaction was not long in coming. “A champion in every dimension!”, “It's a joy as hell!”, “These films are a joy to watch, there's no denying it. Well done gentlemen, I'm keeping my fingers crossed for gold,” we read.
In the semi-final, the Poles will face the winner of the Brazil-United States match. The semi-final opponent will be announced on Monday evening, the match between these teams will start at 9 p.m.