Presenting Pool A of #EuroVolleyW

All Pool A matches of the 2017 women’s EuroVolley will take place at Baku’s National Gymnastics Arena. Situated north-east of the city centre, the venue was built for the inaugural European Games in 2015 and was used again for competition at the 2017 Islamic Solidarity Games. It is a stone’s throw from the Olympic Stadium and can hold up to 9,000 people. Once pool play is over, it will hosts all of the knockout matches including the two medal matches.

Azerbaijan

Hosts Azerbaijan are competing at their seventh consecutive EuroVolley tournament and reached the finals as one of the two host nations. They will be hoping to improve on their last two outings having finished 14th in 2015 and 15th in 2013. Their best result came in their debut appearance in 2005 as they reached the semi-finals before losing to Italy. Defeat in the bronze medal match with Russia followed meaning they ended fourth overall. They reached the play-off round in both 2009 and 2011. 

Germany

After two successive silver medals in 2011 and 2013, Germany did not make the podium last time out when they went as far as the quarter-finals before losing to Turkey in five sets. However, their fifth place finish meant they automatically qualified for this edition of EuroVolley. With two gold and six silver medals (and three bronze), they are the second most successful nation in the history of the competition behind Russia. Their two successes came when competing as East Germany in 1983 and 1987 twice beating Soviet Union. Germany took third place in Group 2 at the 2017 FIVB Volleyball World Grand Prix.
 
Poland

Poland’s major success at EuroVolley came in the early noughties when they were gold medallists in both 2003 and 2005 as they beat Turkey and Italy, respectively. Since then they have only made the podium once as they took bronze in 2009 by beating Germany. Two years ago they finished eighth after losing to the Netherlands in the quarter-finals. They qualified for the 2017 edition by winning their second round pool ahead of Hungary, Finland and Estonia in the qualification phase just over a year ago. Poland were Group 2 winners at the World Grand Prix earlier this year.

Hungary

After a 28-year absence, Hungary are competing at their second consecutive EuroVolley tournament and will be looking to improve on their 12th place finish of two years ago. Their glory years came in the late 1970s and early 1980s as they took three bronze and one silver medal in an eight-year period. Hungary finished second in their second round qualification pool behind Pool A rivals Poland, but beat Romania in a golden set to secure their place at the finals. After sweeping Australia away from home in Canberra, Hungary won the 2017 World Grand Prix Group 3 Finals.