The first team to book a spot in the quarterfinals of the World Championship will be European. It will emerge from the eighthfinal clash between Turkiye and the Netherlands, serving off at 15:30 local time (07:30 UTC) in Pasay City.
Turkiye have not beaten the Netherlands in an official match since the 2018 CEV European Golden League, when they edged them at home in five sets, before losing the way match, also after a tie-breaker. Another three consecutive Dutch victories followed in the head-to-head series, most recently, a 3-1 Volleyball Nations League 2025 win in Xi’an in June of this year. Eventually, the two teams finished bottom of the final VNL standings, with Turkiye in the penultimate 17th place and the Netherlands below them, facing relegation.
Turkiye’s best ever result in the history of the World Championships was achieved three years ago, when they finished 11th in the final standings. They were very successful in the pool phase of the current World Championship, topping their Pool G standings undefeated, with only a set dropped (against Libya) in three matches. The Turks also beat the higher ranked teams of Japan and Canada along the way and rose to number 14 in the current FIVB World Ranking, up two spots from their position before the start of the tournament. Outside hitter Efe Mandiraci and opposite Adis Lagumdzija led the team through the pool stage with 45 points apiece. The former also emerged as the second best server of the competition so far with 10 aces to his name.
Dutch opposite Michiel Ahyi was the leader in the best servers ranking with 12 aces under his belt. He was also the Netherlands’ best scorer so far with 61 points. The Netherlands’ best achievement in the history of the World Championships was the silver they earned back in 1994. It was the only medal they have ever claimed at the World Championships. At the running event, they finished Pool B runners-up to Poland, after defeating Qatar and Romania and losing to the world’s number one team in the first-place decider. In the World Ranking, the Dutch currently stand 20th.