Japan vs Poland Prediction: Expect the Poles to win

For 15 years, Japan has been unable to beat Poland in any official match. Even when it seems that the time has come, it turns out that it has not.

Three of the four quarterfinal matches ended 3:0. All of the losers in these three matches played the second and third sets worse than the first. The Japan-Slovenia game is one example of this.

From game to game, the Japanese built up an advantage: 26:24, 25:18, 25:22. Yuki Ishikawa scored 27 points, including 22 of 37 offensive attempts. In short, the guy worked hard.

As we expected, Japan beat the Slovenians in terms of aces and even in blocks. Japan played their quarterfinal match brilliantly.

The Poles' duel with Brazil followed a similar pattern: 26:24, 25:21, 25:20 - the Brazilians played worse and worse from set to set. At the end of the first game, Bruno messed up several times in a row with passes so much that Del Zotto had to replace him, but it didn't help. Leal, who appeared in the third set, didn't help either - it only worsened.

The Poles struggled with Brazil in the first game, and their advantage was undeniable.

The most productive players for the Polish team were fourth-zone players Sliwka and Leon - with 16 and 11 points, respectively. As you can see, Ishikawa is a long way away.

On 9 July, in the last round of the preliminary stage, Poland beat the tired Japanese 25:17, 25:19, 25:18, 7:1 in blocks and 8:2 in aces. Ishikawa scored only seven points but didn't even come out for the third game. Ran Takahashi did not play at all due to injury.

Do you think it doesn't happen that a team plays brightly in the quarterfinals and then loses in the semifinals by three-nil? It can happen - both semifinals of the 2022 Nations League ended 3:0. Well, and the Japanese won more than one game against Poland last time in 2008.