Brazil's Ricardo Lucarelli celebrates with a lot of joy the victory of Brazil over France
Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, August 15, 2016 – Brazil completed the teams in the quarterfinals of the men’s volleyball tournament after a thrilling victory 3-1 (25-22, 22-25, 25-20, 25-23) to eliminate France in the last contest of the preliminary round on Monday.
As the fourth placed team in Pool A the Brazilians will meet Pool B leaders Argentina in the final-eight knock-out round on Wednesday.
Wallace de Souza had 21 points as the offensive star of Brazil, with two aces. Ricardo Lucarelli added 14 and Lucas Saatkamp and Mauricio de Souza contributed 9 points each with Souza leading all the players with five blocks.
France’s Antonin Rouzier had a match-high 26 points and Earvine Ngapeth added 16 in the loss.
Maurizio de Souza blocked Tillie to give Brazil a 17-16 lead in the well fought first set that saw the home side claiming the win 25-22 when Ngapeth faulted with his serve.
France took the second set despite a late run by the Brazilians. At 23-22, Ngapeth and Kevin Leroux scored with spike and ace, respectively, for the final three-point advantage.
Teams battled point by point until Brazil took a two-point lead at 16-14 when De Souza blocked Ngapeth and Lucarelli scored with a cross-court shot. The home side won 25-20.
Brazil came back in the fourth set to tie at 23-all with a spike out of bounds by Rouzier and went ahead carried by the attack of Wallace Souza. The match concluded with another error y Rouzier while attacking.