A lot of volleyball fans received the news on Sunday evening about another forthcoming Poland vs. Bulgaria clash with timid hearts. The schedule of the 2013 CEV VELUX European Championship made the two giants pit their strength against each other quite early in the tournament. Despite a frenzied atmosphere in “Ergo Arena” in Gdansk, the co-hosts of the event failed to provide massive celebration for their supporters and surrendered to Tsvetan Sokolov and his teammates after a nerve-racking fifth-set marathon.
Poland – Bulgaria 2-3 (25-22, 25-22, 20-25, 24-26, 16-18)
Poland: Zygadlo, Winiarski 16, Nowakowski 9, Bociek 26, Kurek 18, Mozdzonek 11, Zatorski – libero, Wisniewski, Drzyzga 2, Kubiak 4, Ruciak
Bulgaria: G. Bratoev 1, Skrimov 13, Yosifov 3, Sokolov 35, Aleksiev 14, Nikolov 6, Salparov – libero, Milushev, Todorov 5, Penchev
Volleycountry should probably set a new trend and open a separate section only for the Poland vs. Bulgaria matches. It’s been already quite common (in fact, they have played against each other in every major tournament since 2009) for these two teams to rival. These matches are often full of drama, world class volleyball and the show is brought even further thanks to their amazing fans. Unfortunately for neutral fans, one of these teams had to leave the Euro much earlier than planned and just like at the 2010 World Championship in Italy, where these two met in the “group of death” alongside Brazil, it was Poland that has been left short of success.
In what might easily turn out to be Andrea Anastasi‘s last game as a head coach of the Polish national team, he had a tough decision selecting his starters. The two main problems – the setter and the opposite, have caused Poland some trouble already on the weekend. Lukas Zygadlo is not really impressive in his role as a playmaker. He sometimes seems just too predictable and unwilling to take some risks in his setting. The young talented Fabian Drzyzga enjoyed some court time already and has shown great qualities to be the new Polish setter. The controversial opposite Zbigniew Bartman, one of Anastasi’s favourites otherwise, has been left out of the 14-men roster and now Jakub Jarosz and the newcomer Grzegorz Bociek, the main point scorer of the 2013 World Universiade silver Polish team, are taking turns in stepping up up front. Although Bociek’s performance against Slovakia was not really super impressionable, he and the experienced Zygadlo were chosen to lead “druzyna Polska” against the fourth from the London Olympics on the way to Copenhagen.
Camilo Placci and his staff were very calm the days before the match in Gdansk, knowing that the injured Todor Skrimov would be back and kicking in time. Bulgaria is one of the most easily predictable teams in terms of starting lineups. With Teodor Todorov still not fully into the championship, Placci could place Viktor Yosifov and the recovered prior to the championship Nikolay Nikolov in the middle.
Much to the home supporters’ joy, Poland were off to a better start thanks to Grzegorz Bociek and Michal Winiarski. The Polish team remained more focused in front of the audience in Gdansk and took a deserved 2-0 lead ahead of a napping Bulgaria. On the edge of finding themselves in airplane seats travelling back to Sofia the next day, the “lions” showed a different face as of set three till the very last points.
It was a heavy and nervous night already for Bulgarian and Polish fans when a cannon serve by the star Tsvetan Sokolov gave Bulgaria a chance to a break point at 25-24 in set four and eventually sent the game to a decider. A heart-broken Bartosz Kurek was laying on the ground minutes afterwards as he stepped on the opponents’ side of the court while the ball was still in play at 16-17. His fault gave a quarterfinal berth to Bulgaria.
Both teams deserved a place in the next round as they left everything they had on the court tonight. It was a luckier night, however, for the jumping around Bulgarians who will now have the chance to take revenge from Germany for the preliminary tie-break defeat on Saturday.
The Italian head coach Andrea Anastasi shared at the press conference: “I have to congratulate Bulgaria for they always fight in every match they play. It was a very tough game, packed with emotions. I am, of course, disappointed with the final result, but my players did their best to win tonight. I think that Tsvetan Sokolov did make the difference for Bulgaria and right now he is one of the best players in the world”.
Team stats:
ActionSpike pointsSpike %BlockServeRec. pos.Rec. exc.ErrorsPoland7655%9170%16%36Bulgaria6252%11458%6%24
Team leaders:
ActionPointsSpike pointsSpike %Spike errorsBlockServeUnforced errorsGrzegorz Bociek262465%3208Tsvetan Sokolov353057%53211
Pictures: CEV
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