The Bulgarian national men's volleyball team won dramatically 3:2 (17:25, 25:22, 25:23, 27:29, 15:11) against the European champion and world ranking leader Poland in a match of the League of Nations and retained their chances of participating in the final tournament. In front of over 12 thousand spectators in Gdansk, the team led by Gianlorenzo Blenghini made a turnaround against the hosts and achieved a second consecutive success in the competition. The victory is the first for the "tricolors" against Poland in the last eight years, BTA reported.
Bulgaria started with the following lineup: Aleksandar Nikolov, Simeon Nikolov, Asparuh Asparuhov, Georgi Tatarov, Alex Grozdanov, Iliya Petkov and libero Martin Bozhilov. During the match, Damyan Kolev-libero, Venislav Antov, Martin Atanasov, Preslav Petkov, Stoil Palev and Krasimir Georgiev appeared on the court.
In the first game, the game was equal until 10:10, but then the hosts took an advantage of 15:12 and 22:16 to lead at 25:17.
The second half again passed with shared supremacy, with the leadership changing several times. "Druzhina Polska" led with 22:20, but the Bulgarians scored five consecutive points and tied at 25:22.
In the third game, "the tricolors" They made up for a deficit of 9:14 and 15:19, and then took a lead of 23:22 to lead the match at 25:23.
The Poles again reached 13:10, but Bulgaria made up for its deficit and reached 15:15 and 16:16. New equal and long rallies followed, and the Bulgarian team missed a match point at 26:25, but then fell behind by 27:29.
In the tiebreak, Bulgaria was behind by 1:3 and 2:4, but again made a turnaround to 11:9. The final score of 15:11 and 3:2 in the match came after an ace by Simeon Nikolov.
The Bulgarians have 6 wins and 5 losses and an asset of 17 points in ninth place in the provisional standings.
On Sunday, the "tricolores" will face Iran in their last match of the tournament in Gdansk.