Brazil can clinch a gold medal in front of what is sure to be a raucous Copacabana crown on Thursday night when Bruno Schmidt and Alison Cerutti vie for an Olympic championship. Standing in their way at the midnight match will be Italy’s Daniele Lupo and Paolo Nicolai.
Olympics 2016, beach volleyball schedule: Time, TV schedule and live stream for Thursday
Can Bruno Schmidt and Alison Cerutti ride their home team advantage to a beach volleyball gold medal at Copacabana Beach?
Kevin Jairaj-USA TODAY Sports
NBCSN will televise the bronze medal match at 9 p.m. ET, followed by the gold medal match on NBC at 11 p.m., with online streaming of both matches available from NBC Sports.
Schmidt and Cerutti, the Games’ top-seeded team, will be big favorites the sand. Lupo and Nicolai snuck into the gold medal match after a 1-2 record in pool play left them clinging to the Lucky Loser spot just to reach the round of 16. They’ve caught fire since then, winning three straight to ensure a medal at the Rio Games.
Schmidt and Cerutti have also been inconsistent. A shocking pool play loss to the Austrian team of Doppler and Horst prevented them from earning the top seed in the tournament and pushed them into a quarterfinal matchup against third-seeded Americans Dalhausser and Lucena. They won that matchup -- one many thought would be a gold medal showdown -- on their way to Thursday’s late night must-see battle with the Italians.
2016 Rio Olympics beach volleyball finals coverage for Thursday, August 18
All times Eastern (click for streaming info)
Men’s Beach Volleyball Finals
Bronze medal match: 9 p.m. (NBCSN) - Krasilnikov-Semenov (RUS) vs. Meeuwsen-Brouwer (NED) (NBC Sports Stream)
Gold medal match: 11 p.m. (NBC) - Schmidt-Cerutti (BRA) vs. Nicolai-Lupo (ITA) (NBC Sports Stream)
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