2006 Women's World Championships
Second round showdown in Europe (FIVB)
06/09/2005
June
9, 2005 – Eight European women’s teams will play in two
2006 Women’s World Championship second round tournaments
this weekend fighting for the chance to advance to the
third round.
It’s an exciting stage of the 2006 Women’s World
Championship in Europe where by Monday evening, all
three third round pools will be confirmed – with
Azerbaijan and Belgium having finished first and second
respectively in Pool D at the end of last month - from
which the 12 teams will play for six tickets to the
final round. Pic: Belgium (black) and Azerbaijan have already
advanced to the third round
Greece, the Ukraine, Belarus and France will play in
Europe Pool E in Athens starting on Friday while Croatia,
Slovakia, Serbia and Montenegro and the Czech Republic
take on each other in Europe Pool F in Zagreb running
from Saturday to Monday.
The two top finishers in each group will advance to the
third round with Greece, ranked 13th in the world and
the Ukraine(37) favourites to advance in Athens, with
both Belarus(56) and France(56) having reached the
second round via first round tournaments.
While in Zagreb there is a more intriguing scenario
where Serbia and Montenegro(28) and Slovakia(66) have
joined the Czech Republic (26), Croatia (39) having
finished second and first at first round tournaments
respectively and both are in impressive form.
But all of the teams can gain inspiration from Belgium,
who, ranked 66th in the world and having finished second
in round one, repeated that performance in the second
round to advance to the third round.
