Baku, Azerbaijan, May 31, 2014. Bulgaria earned a spot for the Final Round of the 2015 CEV Volleyball European Championship - Women. In the final and crucial match in second qualification round Pool D, the Balkan Lionesses defeated host Azerbaijan by 3:1 (25-14, 25-18, 14-25, 25-19) to claim first place and book their tickets to Belgium and the Netherlands. The Azeris will have another chance in the third qualification round in May 2015. In the earlier match on Saturday between the two bottom teams in the Pool, Portugal overpowered Greece by 3:2 (26-24, 25-21, 22-25, 21-25, 15-13).
Greece vs. Portugal 2:3 (24-26, 21-25, 25-22, 25-21, 13-15)
Both teams had lost any chances to qualify for the finals in Belgium and the Netherlands, but in spite of that, they engaged in an interesting five-set battle for the victory and the third place in the final standings. Making some crucial substitutions in the squad during the game, Greece came back from two sets down, but in the tie-breaker it was the Portuguese players that showed more character to persevere as the winners.
A whole bunch of players ended up in double digits, but it was Portugal’s Fabiola Gomes to top them all with 18. Aikaterina Giota from Greece came close behind with 17.
Bulgaria vs. Azerbaijan 3:1 (25-14, 25-18, 14-25, 25-19)
The first set went on level through 9-9. After 13-11 Bulgaria broke far far away with 9 consecutive points while Azerbaijan was suffering from reception problems. The team from the Balkans was also better in offense and claimed the set by a convincing 25-14. In the second set Azerbaijan started to play a little better, but could not maintain a stable performance through the end. The abundant mistakes on Azerbaijan’s side helped Bulgaria win the second set also by a solid difference - 25-18. In set three at last the home team started to show its good game. It was time for Ayshan Abdulazimova and Polina Rahimova to dominate on the court and Azerbaijan won the set by a landslide 25-14. In the fourth set the Bulgarian team showed good blocking and much better spiking and the serving problems it was having did not affect the outcome. The team of Vladimir Kuzyutkin outplayed its opponent by 25-15 to rejoice victorious with a ticket to the European Championship Finals.
Polina Rahimova topped the scorers’ chart of the match with 19 points for Azerbaijan. Dobriana Rabadzhieva and Emiliya Nikolova were Bulgaria’s best scorers with 17 and 16 points respectively.
Vladimir Kuzyutkin, head coach of Bulgaria: “I am pleased with the performance of my team. My players showed good teamwork and I congratulate them for this good performance.”
Faig Garayev, head coach of Azerbaijan: “The main problem of our team was in receiving. This problem did not let our girls show their teamwork. Bulgaria showed the best blocking. My team and I are very sorry for losing this match.”
Click here for more details on the 2nd Round of qualifications, including match statistics and photos.