So far so good! After three victories over Germany, the Czech Republic and the Netherlands in the group stage of the Men’s European Volleyball Championship 2015, which takes place in Bulgaria and Italy, the Bulgarian national side once again had to face Germany in the quarterfinals. People say that winning against Germany twice in a tournament is nearly impossible. That is what coach of the Germans Vital Heynen also thought. Before the match the Belgian said his team was going to play differently this time and would surely win against Bulgaria. In other words, Bulgaria should have been getting ready for a crushing defeat. However, the exact opposite happened - the German team was defeated once again. Bulgaria won 3: 0 (25:19, 25:23, 25:23).
After the match it became clear that Bulgarian receiver Nikolay Penchev played the game after just learning the tragic news that his stepfather had died. "We played once again as a team mostly because of the great man on the court, named Nicky Penchev. He found the strength to be with us and to take the burden. This victory is mostly for him," said the coach of the team Plamen Konstantinov. His counterpart Vital Heynen behaved like a gentleman, recognizing that if a team lost 0:3 twice, this meant that the other team was the better one. He added Bulgaria deserved to play at the semifinal, and said he hoped Bulgaria would reach the final. This will be very difficult against a rival like France that managed to win 3:1 against Serbia in the quarter finals and is said to be a favorite for the title. It is also known that France has always been a most inconvenient rival, but this is not a reason to deny Bulgaria's chances.
In the other quarterfinal matches Italy won 3:0 against Russia in Busto Arsizio, and in Sofia’s Arena Armeec, World Champion Poland surprisingly lost 2: 3 (17:25, 19:25, 25:23, 25:19, 14:16) against the pleasant surprise of the championship - Slovenia. So, the semifinal matches on October 17 in Sofia will be Bulgaria - France and Slovenia - Italy.
English version: A. Markov
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