The South Korean women's volleyball team, which aims to stay in the VNL, will meet Italy, the Olympic champion in Paris

With the goal of staying in the 2025 FIVB Volleyball Nations League (VNL), the Korean women's national team will face off against Italy, the best team in the world. At 5:30 a.m. on the 7th (all KST), the Korean team led by head coach Fernando Morales will play the second match of Group 2 of the VNL round against Italy in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

Players of the Korean women's volleyball team lined up before the game

The opponent of the second match, Italy, is the absolute powerhouse of the FIVB world number one. Italy won the gold medal last year as VNL champions, beating the United States (ranked fourth in the world) 3-0 in the women's volleyball final at the Paris Olympics. In the first match against the United States at this year's VNL, Italy defeated the United States 3-0 (25-13, 25-13, 30-28).

Although it was a bit tough in the second match against Germany, the Italian women's volleyball team fought to the deciding game and finally reversed the opponent 3-2 (22-25, 25-10, 20-25, 25-13, 15-9) and kept the self-esteem of the defending champions. The Italian women's volleyball team is currently ranked second among the 18 countries in the 2025 FIVB Volleyball Nations League (VNL), behind Poland, who are tied for two consecutive wins.

Italian women's volleyball player Sheila (right), who performed well in the match against the United States

Although it is expected that it will be difficult for the Korean women's volleyball team to win a game against Italy, this is an opportunity to improve the organizational skills of the strongest team. South Korea must avoid being at the bottom of the 18 participating countries in this tournament in order to remain in the VNL. In last year's VNL match, the Korean women's volleyball team defeated Thailand to get rid of a 30-game losing streak in international tournaments, and also won a match against France, ranking 15th out of 16 countries with 2 wins.

In this year's VNL competition, the South Korean women's volleyball team needs to achieve more than 2 wins to avoid relegation. Coach Morales said he will face Belgium (13th in the world), the Czech Republic (14th), Bulgaria (19th) and France (20th), but they are all ranked higher in the world than South Korea.

Lee Sun-woo (right) of the South Korean women's volleyball team attacking in the match against Germany

The Korean women's volleyball team's opponent in the third game of the first week was the Czech Republic, which lost 0-3 (21-25, 20-25, 17-25) to Brazil in the first match against Brazil (ranked 2nd in the world), but scored 20 points in the first and second games. In addition, Bulgaria, who played in the third match of the third week of the third week, also won 3-1 against the Dominican Republic, ranked 11th in the world. Belgium lost 0-3 to China (ranked 6th in the world) but beat Thailand (15th) 3-1 and France lost 3-1 to Turkey, ranked 5th in the world.