The Finnish women’s national volleyball team experienced a bitter defeat in Tampere, when Portugal won the second match of the Silver League 3–1 and took the golden round 23–21.
Finland had won the first leg in Portugal somewhat unexpectedly, as Portugal is five places higher than Finland in the ranking. Since Finland won the match cleanly 3–0, it only needed two set wins from the match in Tampere to win the Silver League and move up to the Golden League next season. However, Portugal managed to take four consecutive sets and win.
The first set was a great game from Finland. Passari Kaisa Alanko found hot players and especially Ada Aronen bullied Portugal’s tackle. In the second set, Portugal found a new gear in their game. Its passing game improved and the midfielder Amanda Cavalcanti vaccinated against Finland on several occasions. Finland’s head coach Nicholas Buser responded to this by switching Emilia I translate to Heini Ahtola, and this exchange worked in its own time. However, the set went to Portugal, just like the third set.
In the fourth set, Finland jumped out to a three-point lead right at the start of the match, but tenacious Portugal caught up. With Kaisa Alango’s pass shift, Finland went from 18–19 to a 22–19 lead and finally got three championship balls. However, Portugal rose to the level and went on to win the set.
The championship of the silver league was therefore decided by a golden round. Ada Aronen found a good mood again this time and the chopper that excelled in the previous match Yasmin Madsen returned to the path of power. The higher the stakes, the hotter the Portuguese team got. It backfired with a red card and a point.
Finland got to a four-point runaway, and even though it shrunk to a point at 13–12, Arone’s fall brought Finland two championship balls. Portugal managed to clear both and in the end the driver got to the place. In the end, the team won no less than eight championship balls in the golden round, before the winner of the match was found out. Having excelled in receiving and passing Ana Monteiro the hit decided the game. Finland had five championship balls in the match.