Special day for Bulgaria’s Niki Kolev
Preview
It’s a special day for Bulgarian middle blocker Nikolay Kolev. He is the only member of the Bulgarian men’s CEV EuroVolley 2023 national team born in Varna and it will be the first time he competes as one of the Lions at their iconic home venue on the Black Sea coast in his home town.
EuroVolley co-host Bulgaria is set to open its home campaign at the Palace of Culture and Sports on Tuesday evening at 20:30 local time with a Pool B game against Spain and the 203-cm-tall middle can’t wait to soak in the fantastic atmosphere in the Lions’ den right from the center of the volleyball court and experience the support of Varna’s incredible audience, which himself was a part of until recently.
As he was growing up, Niki Kolev never missed a Bulgarian national team game at the Palace and was one of the thousands who made this venue an epitome of Bulgarian volleyball fans’ devotion. Now, at the age of 25, it’s his turn to thrive on the positive energy coming from the stands as he defends the national colors as an athlete.
“I expect full stands and I hope the emotion I experience as a player to be as strong as what I experienced as a spectator,” said Kolev. “I came to support the team in every game at the hall in Varna. To be one of these fans was a unique emotion. It will be different on the court because now you represent all these people and the energy flow is directed at you.”
Tuesday’s game between Bulgaria and Spain will open Pool B for business, with the other four teams – Croatia, Finland, Slovenia and Ukraine – joining the round-robin action on Wednesday.
It will be Bulgaria’s 31st appearance at a men’s European Championship. The southern European country missed only two of the previous 32 editions, in 1948 and 2005. Its best results include the silver medal in 1951 and the bronze medals in 1955, 1981, 1983 and 2009.
Spain has played at 11 EuroVolley editions and made headlines in 2007 as the surprise champion, its only podium finish in the history of the competition.
Bulgaria and Spain last met in official international competition six years ago, at EuroVolley 2017, when the Lions mastered a straight-set victory. The last time the team from southwestern Europe managed to defeat the squad from the Balkans was in a 2008 FIVB World League match.
Plamen Konstantinov“We are not in a position to underestimate any opponent and I am far and away from any such thoughts. Spain has experienced, technical players, who can play a well-structured game. We saw some nice matches from them recently. Most of our guys were not a part of any of the team’s big results and should not be burdened with high expectations. They’ve shown a lot of growth in practice. The big question is if we are going to see this growth during the games as well…”
Head coach of Bulgaria
Miguel Rivera“We expect to perform in our best way. It’s going to be a volleyball party here, in Varna, because we expect a full house. For sure, we will have a tough game against hosts Bulgaria, because they are a really strong team, but we know how to put them in trouble and we will try. Of course, we need to perform at our best level, if we want to have any chances of winning, but we are confident that we are able to do it.”
Head coach of Spain
