Bulgaria finish in style at the Qualifier in Hadera, team MKD qualify as second best team
Report
In the last day of play in Pool B, Bulgaria seized another victory, this time outclassing at 3-0 the team of Israel. Despite of having already qualified to the #EuroVolleyM Finals, the players of Silvano Prandi were the more motivated team and grabbed the win with nice work in all the components. Israel, on the other hand, had their moments when they could have turned things around, but could not take the advantage of each situation. In the final standing in Pool B, the Bulgarian Lions top the charts (12 points and 4 victories out of 4 matches), followed by Austria (4 points, 1 win out of 4 matches) and Israel (2 points, 1 win out of 4 matches).
With the last match from the January Qualifiers played, it is also clear that Team MKD from Pool C qualify, too, for the #EuroVolleyM Finals as second best team.
Israel v Bulgaria
0-3 (20-25, 21-25, 23-25)
Pool B
Tsvetan SokolovWe really hope that we have made our fans in Bulgaria happy now that we've qualified for the EuroVolleyM Finals. We hope also that they've enjoyed how we performed and how we played. We need to appreciate all the small things that bring smiles on our faces, and we hope that our achievement in Israel, has made lots of people smile. I want to wish to all of you to stay healthy because this remains the most important thing in these strange times we are all living in.
Captain, team Bulgaria
• Vladimir Stankov started the match as setter, as Prandi decided to give to Georgi Seganov some time to rest. Stankov, on the other hand, received a chance to show his skills and did quite good. The Lions were more concentrated on the field, despite Israel’s attempts to make it difficult for Bulgaria on reception. The players around Prandi could resisted, although there was some room for improvement on serve (3 errors on this element in the first set)
• Israel started better in the second part, improving their play on attack and block. With the set unfolding, Bulgaria also pushed hard on the attack and took back the lead.
• Israel were leading in the beginning of the third set, but after the middle of the set, Bulgaria could regain the control. It was a close call in the last minutes of the third set with both Israel and Bulgaria playing good on attack (14 attacks each team in this part).
• Bulgaria finish with 60% efficiency on attack
• Tsvetan Sokolov became Top Scorer for a fourth consecutive time in the Qualifier, recording 16 points. For Bulgaria, Asparuh Asparuhov contributed with 12 points as well.
• Tamir Hershko from the host team scored successfully 14 times for Israel.