Serbia Faces Turkey Saturday for European Championship Final

The moment the ball hit the floor in Brno and the referee blew for the end of the third set, Serbia’s bench jumped up as one. A 25-17 scoreline closed out a 3-0 win over Greece, but the lasting image from that arena was not just the celebration. A few minutes earlier, at the start of the second set, Greece’s Georgia Angelopoulou was left on the floor screaming in pain after a collision with teammate Evangelia Tani. Angelopoulou injured her left knee, and the European Championship is over for her, just as it already was for her predecessor Efrosini Bakodima, hurt earlier in the match against France.

Serbia still won that second set 25-20 despite the stoppage and the hush that fell over the arena, after Greece had threatened a comeback by leading 12-11 at one point. The first set was no contest, 25-14 following a run of seven straight points, and the third was decided the same way, a long stretch from 22-16 to a final 25-17. The match lasted 72 minutes and produced something that has become almost routine for this team: a place among the continent’s four best national sides.

This is Serbia’s eighth consecutive European Championship semifinal, a run that stretches back to 2011. Along the way the team has collected three gold medals, in 2011, 2017 and 2019, two silvers, in 2021 and 2023, and one bronze, in 2015. Head coach Zoran Terzic has now extended a tradition this generation has built season after season, and he already knows the name, the venue and the exact kickoff time of the next opponent.

Serbia plays Turkey in the semifinal on Saturday, September 5, at 3 p.m. Central European Time, in Istanbul. Turkey reached that match by beating Germany 3-1, by sets 25-18, 22-25, 25-18, 25-22. Melisa Tereza Vargas led the hosts with 26 points, with Eda Erdem adding 12. Germany’s top scorer was Lina Alzmajer with 13 points, one more than Leana Grozer, but it was not enough to carry the team through.

Turkey is the defending European champion, and that sets it apart from Serbia’s earlier opponents in this tournament. The team that beat Serbia in the 2023 final is now waiting for a rematch, only one round earlier than it came back then. In the other semifinal, also in Istanbul that same day at 6 p.m., Italy and Poland meet in a match that decides who plays for second place in the final standings.

Sources disagree on one detail. Tanjug reports that the Turkey-Germany match was played the same day the news broke on Serbia’s semifinal opponent, meaning Turkey had only secured its spot that evening. Mondo, on the other hand, previewed that same match for September 3 as still unplayed at the time its report was written. The outcome that matters is not in dispute: Turkey is in the semifinal. The exact date of the Turkey-Germany match, however, remains unresolved between the two sources.

For Serbia, the message matters more than the calendar right now. Terzic’s team played another match in Brno without dropping a set, against a side that, despite two serious injuries in its own lineup, fought to the very end without giving up. Turkey’s title defense now stands between the Turks and their own trip to the final, and between Serbia and its first European Championship final since 2023, when it lost that very final to this same Turkish team.

Saturday’s 3 p.m. match in Istanbul carries both sporting and emotional weight: a chance for revenge after the final defeat two years ago, and a shot at turning eight straight semifinals into a ninth straight final. Until then, the question is how Terzic sets his lineup against a team that showed in its last match that its attack can carry the whole side even when the defense arrives a split second late.