Bulgaria continues with success on day-2 of European Olympic Qualifiers – Volleyball news
Following a wonderful feat in the first match of 2012 European Men’s Qualification Tournament, the host Bulgaria repeated the same act on day-2.
The home team powered past Serbia in the second match on Wednesday. The visiting team proved to be a tough rival and created a lot of buzz on the centre court. Nonetheless, the Bulgaria hotshots managed to overcome the competitors and claimed 3-0 (25-22,
25-16, 25-23) victory in the match. The Arena Armeec in Sofia, Bulgaria hosted the match, while a crowd of 12,000 witnessed the thrilling encounter.
Aleksandar Atanasijevic of Serbia emerged as the top scorer of the match with a total of 19 points. On the other hand, Vladimir Nikolov fulfilled his duties in the shoes of team captain and scratched 16 points for Bulgaria.
Equipped with the phenomenal support of local fans, Bulgarian team opened the match on a good note. However, Slovenia competed well and stayed hand-in-hand with the hosts. Bulgaria led the score with one point margin at first technical timeout (8-7). As
the game resumed after break, Bulgaria came up with strong offence and stretched the gap of points. Slovenia trailed behind with eight points at the next timeout, 10-18. Slovenia tried to match its performance with Bulgaria but ended up first-set loss, 22-25.
Bulgaria picked up a strong lead in the following set and moved to 8-3 at the first mandatory stop. The visiting team struggled cover the deficit but could not come close to charged-up Bulgarian team. Second set also came successful for hosts and they improved
to 2-0.
Slovenia threw everything in attack in third set and used every tactic to break the tempo of Bulgaria players. Their effort was commendable but Bulgaria stole the show by winning third set, 25-23.
Igor Kolakovic, the head coach of Serbia, complimented the winners, “Today Bulgaria played better volleyball than we did, especially in blocking and serving. At the same time there were too many mistakes in our game. We played without passion, but we must
not forget that tomorrow is a new day with a new challenge waiting for us.”
Bulgarian mentor Radostin Stoytchev paid back the compliments, “Obviously, we won a very important game, which gives us the right to play in the semifinals. I congratulate the team of Serbia, especially their coach, who made the game hard for me. We are
happy, but we should not forget that our work is far from being done.”
With second straight win in the tournament, Bulgaria has brighter prospects to claw its way to the final round. In the next match on day-3, Bulgaria will cross its ways with Spain. Serb squad will play two more matches in the pool-play. They will take on
Spain in the second match and clash with Slovenia in the last match of the first round.
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