Estonian men's volleyball team beat Croatia to qualify for 2026 European finals
The Estonian men's volleyball team secured a ticket to the 2026 CEV European Championships on Wednesday with a 3—1 victory over Croatia in their third qualifying match. By winning two sets, they guaranteed their place in the finals, continuing their perfect run in Group D.
The teams traded points at the start of the match under the hosts' lead, but from 8:8 the Estonians took the lead and then reached a 16:12 advantage. Croatia then managed to tie the score three times, but from 20:20 Estonia took five points in a row and sealed a 25—20 set win.
In the second set, Estonia needed only one more set win to confirm qualification and they started strong, quickly going 4:1 ahead. Croatia managed to stay close for a while. Once again, from 8:8, Estonia made a small spurt and twice took a five-point lead, but the Croats dug themselves out of the hole and managed to win 25—22.
The third set also began with Estonia in the lead, and from 5—4 they never relinquished the advantage: it swelled to nine points by the end of the set, and with a 25—16 win the Estonians secured qualification for next year's European Championships.
In the fourth set, from 8—8 Estonia again picked up momentum and went three points ahead. They played solidly from there and eventually sealed a 3—1 (25—20, 22—25, 25—16, 25—20) victory.
Several Estonian players contributed significantly to the win: Robert Täht contributed 23 points (+17), Märt Tammearu added 15 (+11), Renee Teppan 11 (+6), Andri Aganits 9 (+8) and Alex Saaremaa 8 (+6). As a team, Estonia's reception rate was 43 percent, attack 57 percent; they scored 11 points from blocks (four credited to Saaremaa) and served seven aces (three by Täht) with 22 service errors, Volley.ee reported.
Reflecting on the match, standout attacker Täht said: "Actually we dominated all the sets, in the first set we managed to decide it from 20—20. In the second set we led for a long time, but messed it up there. The third set was the same situation, luckily we managed to hold on there. And in the fourth set we could already take it more calmly and enjoy."
"The job was done, and it wasn't an easy task. When we found out last year who our group opponents would be, we knew it wasn't going to be an easy walk. Luckily we are three out of three, moving forward with a perfect record;" Täht went on.
The Estonian team, going to the European Championships for the eighth time, has won all three matches in Group D and still has one more match to play, on Saturday in North Macedonia against Israel, who still have a chance to qualify. With three wins already secured, Estonia is guaranteed a top position. All group winners and the five best second-place finishers across all groups will advance to the European Championship final tournament.
The finals are being hosted in Bulgaria, Finland, Italy and Romania.
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Editor: Andrew Whyte, Kristjan Kallaste
