Bulgaria scored a three-point victory over Czech Republic

On Friday evening, in the second match of Pool D, Bulgaria scored a three-point victory over Czech Republic 3-1 (25-15, 25-18, 22-25 and 25-21) to close the first day of the 2013 CEV VELUX Volleyball European Championship – Men, Final Round in 'Hala Sportowo-Widowiskowa Gdynia'.

On Friday evening, in the second match of Pool D, Bulgaria scored a three-point victory over Czech Republic 3-1 (25-15, 25-18, 22-25 and 25-21) to close the first day of the 2013 CEV VELUX Volleyball European Championship – Men, Final Round in 'Hala Sportowo-Widowiskowa Gdynia'. 

Bulgaria's Tsvetan Sokolov topped all scorers with 19 points, followed by Czech's David Konecny with 18. 

The first set started well for the Bulgarians, who quickly gained a four-point advantage, buoyed by their colorful fans gathered in the venue. They later increased the lead to seven points (13-6, then 16-9). Both teams struggled with serving, the Czechs had also troubles with spike efficiency, which gave the opponents opportunity to jump even further ahead. Bulgaria easily won the set 25-15. 

The Bulgarians kept the momentum from the previous set and stayed on top from the beginning of the next one. At 13-8 for the opponents, Czech Republic head coach, Steward Bernard called timeout, but it did not help his team. They managed to get closer for a while, but the Bulgarians were better in every element. They took the set 25-18 and were leading in the entire match 2-0. 

Czech Republic came back on court for the third set highly concentrated and it reflected in the score – they jumped ahead to a seven-point leading at 7-0! They maintained this impressive advantage and Bulgaria's head coach Camillo Placi was forced to call timeout at 10-3 for his opponents. It was clearly a time well spent for the team, as they later scored four-unanswered points. Nevertheless, the Czechs remained in control, letting the opponents catch up only for a moment (19-18 for the Czech Republic) and then picked up the set 25-22 to stay in the match, setting the overall score at 1-2. 

Set four started with a 180-degree turn – Bulgaria stormed out to leading 6-0. They maintained ahead throughout the set and were determined to end the game as fast as possible. Bulgaria took the last set 25-21 and the entire match 3-1. 

Bernard Stewart, the head coach of Czech Republic mentioned the main problems of his team. 

“We had bad reception,” he said during the press conference. “Also we didn't get the points when we had great chances. We had a few moments, critical moments, when we should have scored, but we didn't.” 

The captain fo Bulgaria, Todor Aleksiev wanted to remind his team of one important thing: 

“We can't make a big mistake which we made today – when you win 2-0, you can't let your guard down.” 

The standing of Pool D after the first day of the competition is as follows:

Germany (3 points)

Bulgaria (3)

Czech Republic (0)

Russia (0) 

On Saturday, Bulgaria will challenge Germany (3pm local time), Czech Republic will take on Russia (6pm local time).