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Havana, June 4 (ACN)-- Cuba will face the host Canada today at the beginning of group four of the second week of the Volleyball Nations League (VNL), based in Ottawa, a competition that distributes points for the world ranking (RM ) and for the Olympic (RO) of Paris 2024.

According to the International Federation site www.fivb.com, the disciples of technical director Jesús Cruz will meet the locals this Tuesday, seeking to achieve the important success that will guarantee them remaining in the qualification zone for the Parisian multi-sport event.

According to the program, the other match in that section will be Argentina-United States, while in segment three the scheduled matches are Poland-Bulgaria and Iran-Japan.

The Cubans' next challenges are against the Netherlands, on the sixth, Italy, the 2022 world champion, on the seventh, and France, the Tokyo 2020 Olympic champion, on the eighth, since they will rest on the fifth.

Difficult rivals are on duty, but Cruz's team showed a good performance in the first week in key two of the VNL, with the stage for them at the Maracazinho in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

In the city of Rio de Janeiro, the largest of the Antilles concluded its actions with 3-1 victories against Brazil (25-23, 27-29, 25-21 and 25-21), Germany (26-24, 25-20, 18 -25 and 25-23) Iran (25-20, 14-25, 25-21 and 25-21), and a 2-3 defeat with Japan (25-18, 22-25, 23-25, 25- 19 and 22-20).

Cuba entered the qualifying zone for Paris 2024 with the combination in one day of its victory against Germany and Serbia's setback against the Japanese.

The general statistics of the first week of the VNL reflected highlights for Cubans Javier Concepción, the best in blocking, with 14, and captain Miguel Ángel López and Marlon Yant, fourth and fifth places in attack, respectively.

It is impossible to forget the performance of center back Roberlandy Simón, who was key in all the games with the contribution of points and as the leader of the team on and off the field.

The third week for the Cubans will be in Ljubliana, Slovenia, where they will face the local team, Bulgaria, Serbia and Poland.

The VNL program indicates that the quarterfinals will be from June 27 to 28, the semifinal, on the 29th, and the final, on the 30th, in Lodz, Poland, which will close the process for the completion of the classified teams. for Paris 2024.

The Tokyo 2020 Olympic champion, France, as host, Germany and Brazil, one-two in the pre-Olympic tournament in Rio de Janeiro, Japan and the United States in a similar competition held on Japanese soil, and Poland already have their places secured. and Canada, in a tournament that took place in China.