Latvia to Face World Number One Poland in European Championship Round of 16

Latvia's men's national volleyball team secured a place in the European Championship round of 16 on Wednesday after defeating Turkey. Their next opponent will be Poland, a team that was named alongside Italy as one of the tournament's top favorites even before the competition began.

Poland is regarded as one of volleyball's great powers, with the sport's popularity there sometimes rivaling football. The country's domestic league, PlusLiga, is considered one of the strongest and richest in the world, often mentioned in the same breath as Italy's championship. Latvia's head coach Uģis Krastiņš knows the league firsthand, having spent several seasons playing in Poland for the Ukrainian club Barkom-Kazany.

A world leader

Poland currently sits first in the world rankings and second in Europe, behind Italy. This year the team claimed its third Nations League title, defeating the United States in the final. Poland are also the reigning European champions and could become the first team since Italy (2003 and 2005) to win two consecutive European titles. Historically, Poland is one of only two nations to have won gold at the Olympics (1976), the World Championship (1974, 2014, 2018) and the European Championship, having collected 11 European medals in total.

In recent years Poland has lost just three of its last 32 European Championship matches — twice in semifinals against Slovenia, and once this year in the group stage against Bulgaria. The team is led by coach Nikola Grbić, for whom this is his fourth European Championship as a head coach; he previously won gold with Poland in 2023. The tournament's top scorers for Poland have been Szymon Jakubiszak, Wilfredo Leon and Kevin Sasak.

While volleyball has no official system for calculating players' market value, Poland's national team is considered among the financially strongest in the world, and its pool of talented players is deep enough to field several equally competitive squads. Latvia will face Poland on Saturday in Sofia, Bulgaria, with kickoff at 16:00.