# 2018 FIVB Men's Volleyball Challenger Cup

The 2018 FIVB Men's Volleyball Challenger Cup was the inaugural edition of the FIVB Men's Volleyball Challenger Cup, a new 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 Matosinhos, Portugal from 20 to 24 June 2018.
Portugal won the title, defeating Czech Republic in the final, and earned the right to participate in the 2019 Nations League replacing South Korea, the last placed challenger team after the 2018 edition. Estonia defeated Cuba in the 3rd place match.

## 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 |
| Kazakhstan | AVC | Asian Qualifier winners | 20 May 2018 | 0 | None | None | None |
| Chile | CSV | South American Qualifier winners | 20 May 2018 | 0 | None | None | None |
| Portugal | CEV | Host country | 6 June 2018 | 0 | None | None | None |
| Cuba | NORCECA | North American Qualifier winners | 9 June 2018 | 0 | None | None | None |
| Estonia | CEV | 2018 European Golden League champions | 13 June 2018 | 0 | None | None | None |
| Czech Republic | CEV | 2018 European Golden League runners-up | 13 June 2018 | 0 | None | None | None |
    1.^ Originally, the CAVB would have a direct spot in the Challenger Cup, while the representatives from AVC and CSV would play a playoff for a spot. However, FIVB fined the CAVB for not hosting any kind of qualifier event and the winners of the AVC and CSV qualifier booked a direct qualification.

## Pools composition

Teams were seeded following the serpentine system according to their FIVB World Ranking as of 7 July 2017. FIVB reserved the right to seed the hosts as head of pool A regardless of the World Ranking. Rankings are shown in brackets except the hosts who ranked 30th.
| Pool A | Pool B |
| Portugal (Hosts) | Cuba (16) |
| Estonia (32) | Czech Republic (27) |
| Kazakhstan (35) | Chile (41) |

## Venue

* Centro de Desportos e Congressos de Matosinhos, Matosinhos, Portugal

## 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 Western European Summer Time (UTC+01:00).

### Pool A

| Pos | Team | Pld | W | L | Pts | SW | SL | SR | SPW | SPL | SPR | Qualification |
| 1 | Portugal | 2 | 2 | 0 | 6 | 6 | 0 | MAX | 150 | 113 | 1.327 | Semifinals |
| 2 | Estonia | 2 | 1 | 1 | 3 | 3 | 4 | 0.750 | 149 | 161 | 0.925 | Semifinals |
| 3 | Kazakhstan | 2 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 6 | 0.167 | 144 | 169 | 0.852 | |
| Date | Time | | Score | | Set 1 | Set 2 | Set 3 | Set 4 | Total | Report |
| 20 Jun | 21:00 | Portugal | 3–0 | Estonia | 25–19 | 25–16 | 25–20 | | 75–55 | P2 Report |
| 21 Jun | 18:00 | Estonia | 3–1 | Kazakhstan | 25–22 | 19–25 | 25–19 | 25–20 | 94–86 | P2 Report |
| 22 Jun | 21:00 | Kazakhstan | 0–3 | Portugal | 23–25 | 19–25 | 16–25 | | 58–75 | P2 Report |

### Pool B

| Pos | Team | Pld | W | L | Pts | SW | SL | SR | SPW | SPL | SPR | Qualification |
| 1 | Czech Republic | 2 | 2 | 0 | 6 | 6 | 0 | MAX | 150 | 112 | 1.339 | Semifinals |
| 2 | Cuba | 2 | 1 | 1 | 3 | 3 | 4 | 0.750 | 179 | 183 | 0.978 | Semifinals |
| 3 | Chile | 2 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 6 | 0.167 | 158 | 192 | 0.823 | |
| Date | Time | | Score | | Set 1 | Set 2 | Set 3 | Set 4 | Total | Report |
| 20 Jun | 18:00 | Cuba | 0–3 | Czech Republic | 19–25 | 22–25 | 21–25 | | 62–75 | P2 Report |
| 21 Jun | 21:00 | Czech Republic | 3–0 | Chile | 25–15 | 25–17 | 25–18 | | 75–50 | P2 Report |
| 22 Jun | 18:00 | Chile | 1–3 | Cuba | 36–38 | 22–25 | 31–29 | 19–25 | 108–117 | P2 Report |

## Final round

* All times are Western European Summer Time (UTC+01:00).
| Semifinals | Semifinals | Final | Final |
| 23 June – Matosinhos | 23 June – Matosinhos |
| Czech Republic | 3 |
| Czech Republic | 3 | 24 June – Matosinhos | 24 June – Matosinhos |
| Estonia | 1 | 24 June – Matosinhos | 24 June – Matosinhos |
| Estonia | 1 | Czech Republic | 1 |
| 23 June – Matosinhos | 23 June – Matosinhos | | Czech Republic | 1 |
| 23 June – Matosinhos | 23 June – Matosinhos | Portugal | 3 |
| Portugal | 3 | Portugal | 3 |
| Cuba | 0 | | |
| Cuba | 0 | 3rd place match | 3rd place match |
| | | 24 June – Matosinhos | 24 June – Matosinhos |
| | | Estonia | 3 |
| | | Cuba | 0 |

### Semifinals

| Date | Time | | Score | | Set 1 | Set 2 | Set 3 | Set 4 | Set 5 | Total | Report |
| 23 Jun | 15:00 | Czech Republic | 3–1 | Estonia | 29–31 | 27–25 | 25–18 | 25–21 | | 106–95 | P2 Report |
| 23 Jun | 18:00 | Portugal | 3–0 | Cuba | 25–22 | 25–21 | 26–24 | | | 76–67 | P2 Report |

### 3rd place match

| Date | Time | | Score | | Set 1 | Set 2 | Set 3 | Set 4 | Set 5 | Total | Report |
| 24 Jun | 15:00 | Estonia | 3–0 | Cuba | 30–28 | 25–21 | 25–16 | | | 80–65 | Report |

### Final

| Date | Time | | Score | | Set 1 | Set 2 | Set 3 | Set 4 | Set 5 | Total | Report |
| 24 Jun | 18:00 | Czech Republic | 1–3 | Portugal | 25–18 | 22–25 | 19–25 | 16–25 | | 82–93 | Report |

## Final standing

| Rank | Team |
| | Portugal |
| | Czech Republic |
| | Estonia |
| 4 | Cuba |
| 5 | Chile |
| 5 | Kazakhstan |
* Qualified for the 2019 Nations League
* 2018 Men's Challenger Cup champions
* Portugal First title
* 13–man Roster
* Caique da Silva, José Belo, Filip Cveticanin, Marco Ferreira, Alexandre Ferreira (c), Januário Silva, José Monteiro, João Simões, Phelipe Martins, Lourenço Martins, Valdir Sequeira, Miguel Tavares Rodrigues, João Fidalgo
* Head coach
* Hugo Silva