The 2025 Volleyball World Championship knockout phase for men’s is all set after a grueling preliminary round, and most of the usual suspects have qualified. Defending champions Italy and former runners-up Poland are in. Tunisia, the Czech Republic, Serbia, Iran, the United States, Slovenia, Bulgaria, Portugal, Canada, Turkey, the Netherlands, Argentina, Belgium, and Finland will join them in the Round of 16.
Three-time gold medalists Brazil surprisingly did not make it, as they narrowly lost out in Pool H. Meanwhile, Iran are the last Asian team standing after the Philippines, Qatar, South Korea, Japan, and China have bombed out.
According to the updated Volleyball World Championship 2025 odds, the race for the gold medal is wide open. However, Poland and Italy are slightly favoured, given their history and performance in this competition.
As always, you can learn more about the latest Volleyball World Championship 2025 updates, courtesy of SBOTOP.
Italy sweep Ukraine to take second spot
Italy were in danger of missing out on the final round, as they stood at 1-1 after the first two games. They won against Algeria and lost to Belgium, so they needed to win their final game against Ukraine, which also had a 1-1 record, and they did dominantly last Thursday.
The defending champions delivered arguably their best performance in the 3-0 (25-21, 25-22, 25-18) victory against Ukraine. With the win, the Italians got to seven points in the pool standings, finishing second behind Belgium.
Alessandro Michieletto led the way for the Azzurri with 13 points (12 kills, one block). Outside hitter Mattia Bottolo and opposite Yuri Romano followed his lead with 11 points each. There was not much difference between Italy and Ukraine in the team stats, but Italy had a significant edge in opponent errors (24 to 13).
“We knew this match was very important for us,” Romano said. “We played very well from the start and stayed together in the difficult moments. Now, we want to continue like this. The teams here are very leveled, so we need to play well in every match and be aware that difficult moments will come and be ready for them.”
Italy will take on Argentina in the Round of 16. Argentina were one of the undefeated teams in the preliminary round with wins against Finland, France, and South Korea in Pool C.
Poland are undefeated in Pool B
Compared to Italy, Poland are through to the knockout rounds with ease, as they went unblemished in Pool B with a 3-0 slate, only dropping a single set. The Poles wrapped up the preliminary round with a 3-1 (22-25, 25-23, 25-19, 25-22) comeback victory against the Netherlands last Wednesday.
The world’s No. 1 team scored 53 kills against 51 from their Dutch counterparts. They also had a 7-4 edge in aces, but the biggest difference came from the fewer unforced errors the Poles committed during the match (25 to 29).
Star opposite Bartosz Kurek led Poland with 19 points (16 kills, two blocks, one ace), and outside hitters Kamil Semeniuk and Tomasz Fornal contributed 15 points apiece. Poland are up against Canada, who are the second seed in Group G with a 2-1 record, in the Round of 16.
Iran edge Philippines in exciting five-setter
Iran took the final available spot in Pool A by outlasting the Philippines in an epic five-setter last Thursday. In the 3-2 (21-25, 25-21, 17-25, 25-23, 22-20) victory, the Iranians had to dig deep in the do-or-die battle, and Yousef Kazemi Poshtpari sealed the deal with his monster block at their second match point.
The hosts were in control of sets one and three for a 2-1 lead, but Iran didn’t give up and forced a fifth set. The Philippines managed to recover from a 10-6 Iranian lead in the tie-breaker and was the first to reach match point. However, Iran denied the Philippines as many as six opportunities to close the match.
Everyone in the Mall of Asia Arena thought that the sixth match point was finally converted to a 20-18 win, but a successful net touch challenge by Iran pegged the match back to square one. Since then, Iran has had the psychological edge and never looked back.
Outside hitter Poriya Khanzadeh and opposite Ali Hajipour had 22 points apiece to lead the Iranians, who had a slight edge in kills (63 to 62) and aces (six to five). Iran are up against Serbia, who took the top berth in Pool H with a 2-1 record, in the Round of 16.
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