Belarus
The teams that have topped the charts of their respective Pools and qualified for the European Championship are:
Men: Belarus, Netherlands, Czech Republic, Finland, Germany, and France; they join the two organizers, Denmark and Poland, as well as those teams – Serbia, Italy, Russia, Slovakia and Bulgaria – that are pre-qualified as per the final standings of the 2011 edition;
Women: Spain, Netherlands, Azerbaijan, Croatia, Belgium and Bulgaria; they also join the two organizers, Germany and Switzerland, and the teams – Serbia, Turkey, Italy, Poland and Russia – pre-qualified as per the final standings of the 2011 edition.
The last three tickets per gender to complete the starting field of the 2013 CEV Volleyball European Championship will be assigned next May via a series of home and away matches; the relevant pairings read as follows:
Men: Croatia vs. Slovenia; Greece vs. Belgium; Turkey vs. Latvia
Women: Ukraine vs. France; Romania vs. Czech Republic; Belarus vs. Slovakia
The major sensation of the second round was caused by Belarus’ men who finished atop of the standings in Pool A – ahead of much more decorated teams like Turkey and Portugal – to qualify for the first time in history for the final round of the European Championship
