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Slovenia battled it out for a 3-2 (32-34, 25-20, 19-25, 25-21, 15-12) victory over Germany to join the home team into the semifinals of the continental Olympic qualifier in Berlin. The two teams are unreachable in the top two positions of the Pool A standings.

Without injured Gyorgy Grozer in the starting line-up, the Germans stormed into the match on a 7-1 run, decorated with two aces by Christian Fromm, but the Slovenians stepped up their blocking efforts to gradually catch up at 20-20 and prompt an epic conclusion. They were the first to reach set point, but it was only one of many. Slovenia missed out on a total of seven opportunities to win the set. Germany did it on their third set point off of a mishit by Toncek Stern for 34-32.

It was Stern again who closed the second set, but this time in favour of his own team with a successful back-row hit for 25-20, after Slovenia had dominated the second half of the set led by some great work from their setter Dejan Vincic.

With substitute setter Jan Zimmermann doing a fabulous job on the court in the third set, the home side was well in control and cruised to a 25-19 win, shaped up with a blistering ace by Ruben Schott. With many of the German starters now off the court, Slovenia took control of the next two sets.

With Klemen Cebulj and Toncek Stern spearheading their offence, they pushed on to turn things around to a 3-2 win after 25-21 and 15-12. Cebulj was the best scorer of the match with 25 points, including four aces, to his name.