# 2019 FIVB Men's Volleyball Challenger Cup

The 2019 FIVB Men's Volleyball Challenger Cup was the second edition of the FIVB Men's Volleyball Challenger Cup, an annual men's international volleyball tournament contested by six national teams that acts as a qualifier for the FIVB Men's Volleyball Nations League. The tournament was held in Ljubljana, Slovenia from 3 to 7 July 2019.
Slovenia won the title, defeating Cuba in the final, and earned the right to participate in the 2020 Nations League replacing Portugal, the last placed challenger team after the 2019 edition. Belarus defeated Turkey in the 3rd place match.
On 8 May 2020, FIVB announced that the 2020 Nations League and 2020 Challenger Cup was canceled due to COVID-19 pandemic. So the tournament eventually became the 2021 Nations League qualifier.

## Qualification

A total of 6 teams qualified for the tournament.
| Country | Confederation | Qualified as | Qualified on | Previous appearances | Previous appearances | Previous appearances | Previous best performance |
| Country | Confederation | Qualified as | Qualified on | Total | First | Last | Previous best performance |
| Slovenia | CEV | Host country | December 2018 | 0 | None | None | None |
| Cuba | NORCECA | North American Qualifier winners | 1 June 2019 | 1 | 2018 | 2018 | 4th place (2018) |
| Egypt | CAVB | 1st World ranked team from CAVB | 12 June 2019 | 0 | None | None | None |
| Chile | CSV | 2019 Pan-American Cup best finishing team from CSV | 21 June 2019 | 1 | 2018 | 2018 | 5th place (2018) |
| Belarus | CEV | 2019 European Golden League runners-up | 21 June 2019 | 0 | None | None | None |
| Turkey | CEV | 2019 European Golden League champions | 21 June 2019 | 0 | None | None | None |
    1.^ Originally, the representatives from AVC and CSV would play a playoff for a spot. But, South Korea, chosen by FIVB, refused to represent the AVC. So the AVC–CSV playoff was canceled and the representatives from CSV booked a direct qualification.

## Pools composition

Teams were seeded following the serpentine system according to their FIVB World Ranking as of 1 October 2018. FIVB reserved the right to seed the hosts as head of pool A regardless of the World Ranking. Not more than two teams from the same Continental Confederation can go into a same pool. In case the third team from the same Continental Confederation is placed in the same pool as per the World Ranking, the third team will move to the other pool. Rankings are shown in brackets except the hosts who ranked 17th.
| Pool A | Pool B |
| Slovenia (Hosts) | Egypt (13) |
| Turkey (33) | Cuba (18) |
| Chile (37) | Belarus (48) |

## Venue

* All matches
* Ljubljana, Slovenia
* Arena Stožice
* Capacity: 12,480

## Pool standing procedure

* Number of matches won
* Match points
* Sets ratio
* Points ratio
* Result of the last match between the tied teams
Match won 3–0 or 3–1: 3 match points for the winner, 0 match points for the loser Match won 3–2: 2 match points for the winner, 1 match point for the loser

## Preliminary round

* All times are Central European Summer Time (UTC+02:00).

### Pool A

| Pos | Team | Pld | W | L | Pts | SW | SL | SR | SPW | SPL | SPR | Qualification |
| 1 | Slovenia | 2 | 2 | 0 | 6 | 6 | 1 | 6.000 | 173 | 122 | 1.418 | Semifinals |
| 2 | Turkey | 2 | 1 | 1 | 3 | 4 | 3 | 1.333 | 148 | 155 | 0.955 | Semifinals |
| 3 | Chile | 2 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 6 | 0.000 | 106 | 150 | 0.707 | |
| Date | Time | | Score | | Set 1 | Set 2 | Set 3 | Set 4 | Total | Report |
| 3 Jul | 20:40 | Slovenia | 3–0 | Chile | 25–15 | 25–15 | 25–19 | | 75–49 | P2 Report |
| 4 Jul | 20:30 | Turkey | 3–0 | Chile | 25–13 | 25–22 | 25–22 | | 75–57 | P2 Report |
| 5 Jul | 20:40 | Slovenia | 3–1 | Turkey | 23–25 | 25–16 | 25–15 | 25–17 | 98–73 | P2 Report |

### Pool B

| Pos | Team | Pld | W | L | Pts | SW | SL | SR | SPW | SPL | SPR | Qualification |
| 1 | Cuba | 2 | 2 | 0 | 5 | 6 | 3 | 2.000 | 206 | 184 | 1.120 | Semifinals |
| 2 | Belarus | 2 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 4 | 5 | 0.800 | 193 | 195 | 0.990 | Semifinals |
| 3 | Egypt | 2 | 0 | 2 | 2 | 4 | 6 | 0.667 | 197 | 217 | 0.908 | |
| Date | Time | | Score | | Set 1 | Set 2 | Set 3 | Set 4 | Set 5 | Total | Report |
| 3 Jul | 17:30 | Egypt | 2–3 | Belarus | 25–21 | 16–25 | 25–20 | 24–26 | 9–15 | 99–107 | P2 Report |
| 4 Jul | 17:30 | Cuba | 3–1 | Belarus | 25–20 | 21–25 | 25–21 | 25–20 | | 96–86 | P2 Report |
| 5 Jul | 17:30 | Egypt | 2–3 | Cuba | 23–25 | 18–25 | 25–23 | 25–22 | 7–15 | 98–110 | P2 Report |

## Final round

* All times are Central European Summer Time (UTC+02:00).
| Semifinals | Semifinals | Final | Final |
| 6 July – Ljubljana | 6 July – Ljubljana |
| Cuba | 3 |
| Cuba | 3 | 7 July – Ljubljana | 7 July – Ljubljana |
| Turkey | 2 | 7 July – Ljubljana | 7 July – Ljubljana |
| Turkey | 2 | Cuba | 0 |
| 6 July – Ljubljana | 6 July – Ljubljana | | Cuba | 0 |
| 6 July – Ljubljana | 6 July – Ljubljana | Slovenia | 3 |
| Slovenia | 3 | Slovenia | 3 |
| Belarus | 1 | | |
| Belarus | 1 | 3rd place match | 3rd place match |
| | | 7 July – Ljubljana | 7 July – Ljubljana |
| | | Turkey | 1 |
| | | Belarus | 3 |

### Semifinals

| Date | Time | | Score | | Set 1 | Set 2 | Set 3 | Set 4 | Set 5 | Total | Report |
| 6 Jul | 17:30 | Cuba | 3–2 | Turkey | 22–25 | 25–23 | 25–22 | 20–25 | 15–12 | 107–107 | P2 Report |
| 6 Jul | 20:45 | Slovenia | 3–1 | Belarus | 21–25 | 27–25 | 25–20 | 25–18 | | 98–88 | P2 Report |

### Third place match

| Date | Time | | Score | | Set 1 | Set 2 | Set 3 | Set 4 | Set 5 | Total | Report |
| 7 Jul | 17:30 | Turkey | 1–3 | Belarus | 20–25 | 25–20 | 16–25 | 20–25 | | 81–95 | P2 Report |

### Final

| Date | Time | | Score | | Set 1 | Set 2 | Set 3 | Set 4 | Set 5 | Total | Report |
| 7 Jul | 20:30 | Cuba | 0–3 | Slovenia | 24–26 | 21–25 | 21–25 | | | 66–76 | P2 Report |

## Final standing

| Rank | Team |
| | Slovenia |
| | Cuba |
| | Belarus |
| 4 | Turkey |
| 5 | Egypt |
| 6 | Chile |
* Qualified for the 2021 Nations League
* 2019 Men's Challenger Cup champions
* Slovenia First title
* 14–man Roster
* Tonček Štern, Alen Pajenk, Jan Kozamernik, Alen Šket, Mitja Gasparini, Dejan Vinčić, Sašo Štalekar, Žiga Štern, Jani Kovačič, Urban Toman, Matic Videčnik, Gregor Ropret, Tine Urnaut (c), Klemen Čebulj
* Head coach
* Alberto Giuliani