France have created history by winning gold in the men's volleyball as they downed ROC 3-2 at the Olympic Games Tokyo 2020.
Despite being European champions (2015) and two-time Nations League winners (2015 and 2017), France best finish in men's volleyball at the Olympic Games had been an eighth-place finish at Seoul 1988.
Their win at Ariake Arena in a nail-bitting five-setter was France's first Olympic Volleyball medal.
"It’s incredible. We are champions, Olympic champions," said Kevin Tillie after the match.
“It was 2-0 and then the ROC team played very well and made it very difficult for us because they spiked very hard," Jenia Grebennikov followed up. "We are very happy to win the tie-break...this is crazy, it’s unbelievable."
The final marked the first time in 21 years two European teams had met in the gold medal match of the men's volleyball tournament at the Olympic Games.
Heading into the gold medal match, France had won only two of their five preliminary round matches before wins over Poland and Argentina put them into the final while ROC's only blemish on their Tokyo 2020 campaign was a 3-1 loss to France in the preliminary round.
After taking the first set, France had a new air of confidence in themselves going on to take a five-point lead over ROC in the second. Struggling to overcome the onslaught and power shown by France, especially on the serve, ROC called a time out to re-group.
Bringing on Victor Poletaev to serve reception, it proved to be the right move for ROC as they drew back two consecutive points. However, it was short-lived as France hit 20-17 and sailed to victory in the second set.
With France just a set away from their first medal in Olympic Volleyball, ROC weren't about to make it easy for them. After taking the lead (16-17) for the first time since the first set, the ROC team eventually took the third (21-25) before their win in the fourth sent the match to a fifth and final set to see who would take gold.
It was a race to 15 that was going point-for-point. Just as France hit the magic mark, celebrating their victory, ROC challenged the point.
But it was to no avail, France had become the Olympic champions.
Earlier in the evening, Argentina beat their arch-rivals Brazil for bronze.
