The match was played in Belgrade in Serbia so the Croatians were without the home support that they would have been accustomed to in the pool stage in Zagreb.

Croatia started the match brilliantly as the team quickly won the first set 25-16 but they were pegged back by the opposition 25-21 in the second.

In the third set Croatia took the lead once more, this time in a tighter affair 25-22.

However, the momentum swung in France's favour as they levelled the contest by winning the fourth set 25-22 before pulling out all of the stops to win the tiebreaker 15-12.

Turkey overcome the Czech Republic to win 3-1 and progress to the next round in Plovdiv in Bulgaria.

After confidently winning the first set 25-13, the Turks were then outclassed 25-22 in the second in what turned out to be an anomaly in the match.

Turkey won the remaining two sets 25-14 and 25-13 as they finished strongly to set up a quarter-final clash with Poland.

Elsewhere, Poland overcame a scare from Ukraine after losing the first set 25-21.

Poland then gained its composure to take three straight sets and win the match 3-1.

Meanwhile Serbia breezed past Hungary 3-0 in its capital city Belgrade.

At one point, the home side was 13 points clear in the first set but almost threw it away as the manager subbed out multiple players.

Tijana Boskovic hammered 10 points in the second set for Serbia including the set winner as her side won 25-19.

The reigning champions then took the third set 25-17 as they progressed to the quarter-finals to face France.

The two remaining round of 16 matches are set to take place tomorrow as Italy face Belgium and Russia play Belarus to decide the line-up for the quarter-final.