French Croatian duel also a meet between Imoco coach and teammates

France’s Lucille Gicquel and Croatia’s Bozana Butigan are both reigning European champions at the club level, but as of Sunday only one of them retains a shot at doubling on the national teams’ continental top as well. The two former teammates went face to face in a hard-fought CEV EuroVolley 2021 eighthfinal at Belgrade’s Stark Arena and Gicquel led France to a 3-2 victory.

Lucille Gicquel spikes over the block of Bozana Butigan and Samanta Fabris

Not only did the 23-year-old French opposite go against her former clubmate, but also against her former coach at Italy’s A. Carraro Imoco Conegliano, Daniele Santarelli. Whether or not that gave her any extra motivation to excel in Sunday’s deciding clash, she delivered 25 points towards France’s 3-2 (16-25, 25-21, 22-25, 25-22, 15-12) win, which propelled her squad to the quarterfinals of the tournament. She was France’s best scorer of the match, and, now on a total of 109 points in the tournament, she is still the team’s top point-maker at the championship.

Gicquel’s move to Imoco in 2020 was the first international transfer in her club career. After winning a domestic golden treble, and the CEV Champions League Volley 2021 crown at the end of the season, under the guidance of coach Santarelli, however, she moved again to spend the next season with another Italian club, Bosca S.Bernardo Cuneo.

Gicquel and her French teammates celebrate the victory over Croatia

Bozana Butigan also joined the Italian powerhouse from Conegliano in 2020 and for her it was also the first transfer to a club outside Croatia, but unlike Gicquel, she is set to stay with Santarelli’s squad in the next season as well. Furthermore, she has the Italian specialist as the head coach of her national team as well.

Butigan in action against France

The talented Croatian middle blocker, who turned 21 on the day her team won their opening EuroVolley 2021 match against Switzerland in Zadar 10 days ago, was one of the best perfomers in Sunday’s eighthfinal against Gicquel and her French teammates. Butigan produced 14 points, of which one ace and four stuffs. On a total of 19 kill blocks so far, she is currently second only to Bulgaria’s Hristina Vuchkova among the most prolific blockers of the tournament.

Coach Santarelli speaks to Butigan during the match

Interestingly, another former Imoco player, Croatia’s opposite Samanta Fabris, who competed for the Italian club between 2017 and 2019, delivered the match high of 26 points.

Having started their EuroVolley campaign with two losses, to Russia and to Serbia, France are now on a four-match winning streak. However, in their next game, a September 1 quarterfinal at the Stark Arena, they will have to face reigning world champions, defending European champions and EuroVolley hosts Serbia again.

In Sunday’s late eighthfinal in Belgrade, the Serbs expectedly cruised to a comfortable 3-0 (25-20, 25-19, 25-17) victory over Hungary, with star opposite Tijana Boskovic topping the match scorers chart on 19 points.