History in Milan: Finland takes first-ever European volleyball bronze — Slovenia, Serbia’s “executioner”, goes home empty-handed

MILAN — History was written on Saturday evening in the Lombard capital of Italy: the Finland men’s national volleyball team won the bronze medal at the 2026 European Championship, defeating Slovenia 3:0 in the third-place match.

The sets closed 25:23, 25:20 and 29:27 in favor of the Finns, who controlled the decisive match from start to finish, leaving the Slovenian side no room to get back into the game.

This is the greatest success in the history of Finnish men’s volleyball: Finland’s first-ever medal at a European Championship. Until now, the Finns had never managed to climb onto the continental podium.

As fate would have it, Finland’s victim was precisely Slovenia — the national team that had eliminated Serbia from this European Championship. Serbia’s “executioner” thus went home empty-handed: defeated in the battle for bronze and without a medal from Milan.

EuroVolley 2026 closes with a new page written by Finland, which from tonight enters the golden book of European men’s volleyball, as Naslovi.net reports.