France vs Italy Prediction: Teams To Compete In Service Errors

The Olympic champion and the European one did not face off neither at the Tokyo Olympics nor the last European Volleyball Championship. They won their titles without interfering with each other. An ideal situation, but now someone will have to give way.

In the quarterfinal match between France and Japan, a bet on the total number of service errors over 34.5 came in. It is mainly the merit of the French, who lost the serve 20 times in three games, thus confirming their reputation as the most faulty team in the tournament. On average, the French team lost their serves five and a half times per game in the preliminary round against the playoff teams, but here they outdid themselves. Naturally, betting on the service errors total in the semifinals will not lose its appeal.

In the group tournament, they averaged three and a half blocks per game. Well, in the quarterfinals everything went according to statistics – 11 blocks, eight of them French. Let's remember.

In terms of aces, Giani's players lost to the Japanese 3-4. Not enough – earlier in games with France, there have been more than three aces per set scored.

Thus, in this match as well, betting on aces looks unreliable, and it's just the opposite with the service errors and blocks. That's based on France's numbers alone. But that's where their opponent comes in.

In the preliminary round, the Italians averaged nearly five service errors per set, but in the quarterfinals against the Netherlands, they lost serve only seven times in four sets. Maybe they were pushing back on serve on purpose, counting on their block and their opponent's errors on offense. Well, maybe it was just a good night. In any case, it is unlikely that the Italians will be able to repeat it; doing push-ups on serve in the game with the French is fraught with danger. And I don't think they'll be able to serve that well twice in a row. But one can't get these seven erorrs out of their head.

If Italy relied on their block in the quarterfinals, they did it well – 12-4. Four blocks on average per set, it is better than in the group stage, where it was three and a half. Combined with the French, that gives us 14 blocks in four sets. If Italy plays in this element with the French the same way they did with the Dutch, more. But it's unlikely to happen: the French are considered masters of scoring from the block, and they average less than a half per set. In short, the teams have to play five sets to get to the Blocks TO.

Well, Italy and the Netherlands played 7-6 in terms of aces. More than three aces on average per set is a good result and in four sets, they reach aces TO. The group results of both teams confirm this – in particular, three aces per set on average were played in bouts involving Italy. But we should point out that that's a theoretical Total Over.

A month and a half ago, in the first match of the first week, the French beat the Italians in three sets 25-22, 26-24, 25-19. Italy had only Giannelli and Galassi in the first game. The score was 6-6 in blocks, 4-2 in aces in favor of France, and there were 32 service errors, 18 of which were Italian.

So, we don't believe that the Italians will be able to serve error-free for the second game in a row, so we can bet like this:

– Service Errors Total Over (36.5) for 1.80;

– Total Over (186.5) for 1.83;

– Total Sets Over 4.5 for 2.64.

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