Bulgaria breaks Russia’s winning streak: 2011 FIVB World League – Volleyball news
Team Bulgaria hit the mark in a tough match against Russia and successfully broke their winning streak of 10 matches on Thursday, June 30. The Bulgarian city of Varna hosted the match as the Bulgarian’s took full advantage of playing at home and did the
damage to Russian team by posting 3-1 (25-22, 18-25, 30-28, and 25-20) victory.
Bulgarian President, Georgi Parvanov, had come to watch the match and he was not disappointed. Likewise, Military Minister Anyu Anev, Sports Minister Svilen Neykov and some other top officials of the Bulgarian Navy were also present at the match.
The home team opened the match with convincing serves and accurate shots. They played with a lot of discipline and didn’t make any silly mistakes. A better defencive strategy and consistent play enabled Bulgaria to pick up an early lead over Russia. Matey
Kaziyski gave out a great performance and together with setter Andrey Zhekov raced towards the finish live. Russian players seemed uneasy because of the mounting pressure from the audience as Bulgaria claimed the first set with margin of three points (25-22).
The loss of opening set did not go down well with the Russian team and they strengthened their defence and at the same time attempted frequent attacks. As a result, the situation got better for Russia and they picked up the lead. Bulgarian side resisted
in full force but couldn’t help the tie of 1-1 at the end of second set.
It seemed as if Russia was back on track with second set victory but Bulgaria refused to falter and the Bulgarian side bounced back in the game. They saw a phenomenal improvement in third set and extended their lead to 2-1.
Fourth set was also won by the Bulgarians as the Russians committed hasty moves and suffered another set-back. Bulgaria benefitted from the opposite team’s errors and clawed their way to victory in the fourth set.
Vladimir Nikolov, the head coach of Bulgaria, shared his thoughts after the match and stated, "We won a victory that keeps us in the fight for the finals. Russia is one of the best teams in the World and the key for our victory was that we fought, we were
self-confident and strong till the last moment and we made mistakes twice less than the opponents. Anyway, we`re still aware that we`re gonna have a very difficult match tomorrow, but we`re still gonna fight till the end."
His counterpart, Russian Head Coach Vladimir Alekno, congratulated the victorious team. He appreciated the brilliant atmosphere in the host city. He also explained the reason for the squads failure and said that his side underestimated the Bulgarian team
after 10 victories. Moreover, he said too many mistakes caused them major damage.
Russian skipper Taras Khtei is completely focused on the next match on Friday, July 1. He expressed high hopes that Russians will bounce back in the game in the second match against Bulgaria.
Bulgarian mentor Radostin Stoychev was indeed the successful man of the day. The National Team worked out a great win over the tournament’s top team. He praised the flawless performance of his players and he urged them to stay on the winning route and bring
out another victory in the next meeting with Russia.
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