Luxembourg, January 16, 2020. The last day of action in Pool C brought the big surprise as Team MKD edged by 3-1 the team of favourites Turkey. Despite the loss, Turkey qualify to the finals of CEV EuroVolley 2021 through the impeccable record from their previous matches. On Saturday, the Macedonian players led by captain Nikola Gjorgiev and with great contribution by Aleksandar Ljaftov, recorded a victory to save their chances to proceed ahead as second best team as well. In Pool B, Bulgaria played maybe their best match so far in the Qualifier. Outperforming the team of Austria in straight sets, the Bulgarian Lions grabbed the ticket to the Finals of CEV EuroVolley 2021 as well, one day before the tournament in Hadera is over. The players around head coach Silvano Prandi controlled the game from start to end.
North Macedonia v Turkey 3-1 (25-19, 21-25, 25-23, 25-18)
• Team MKD started better in the match outperforming Turkey on block.
• Turkey entered the second set performing better than they had done earlier in the match. The Macedonian players also kept on showing good skills. Both Turkey and MKD were performing well on attack, but Turkey had room for improvement on the reception. Aleksandar Ljaftov and Nikola Gjorgiev with sharp attacks were making it difficult for the Turks. Adis Lagumdzija in the end of the set took the leadership role for the visitors.
• Despite Turkey’s better performance on block, the unstoppable Nikola Gjorgiev led his team towards victory in the third set.
• In the last set, the Macedonians kept on with their excellent performance with 48% effectiveness on attack. Turkey, too, had their moments but it wasn’t enough to stop the inspired Macedonians.
• Once again, captain Nikola Gjorgiev topped the charts contributing with 24 points to his team’s win, while Ljaftov recorded 23. For Turkey, Burutay Subasi registered 17.
"After having lost the first match with Turkey, we got really motivated. Today, we played very good in all the elements - reception, block, attack and you see the result. We are very happy about this victory. It shows our potential," Darko Angelovski, player of Team MKD said.
Bulgaria v Austria 3-0 (25-15, 25-18, 25-20)
• Bulgaria started the match leading comfortably being better on block and on the serve.
• The Lions performed better also in the second set, with Todor Skrimov serve’s making it difficult for Austria’s reception. Martin Atanasov and Aleks Grozdanov also contributed with interesting actions in these moments.
• Austria were struggling to find their game, and even though they improved their play on attack, it was difficult for them to respond to the impeccable Bulgarian team. They had also some problems in reception.
• Team Bulgaria recorded 11 blocks and scored 10 aces in the match, with a 60% efficiency in attack in the process.
• Tsvetan Sokolov became Top Scorer of the match for the third consecutive time, this time recording 18 points. Martin Atanasov and Todor Skrimov contributed with 12 points apiece to their team’s win.
• For Austria Alexander Berger topped the charts with 15.
“I am really happy because we came to Hadera with a different, younger team, but we achieved our goal to qualify to the Finals. This achievement is a team success, because everybody in the team has contributed and I am really proud of my teammates,” Tsvetan Sokolov, captain of Bulgaria said.
Peter Wohlfahrtstätter, captain of Team Austria: “Compared to the first game against Bulgaria, we served much worse today, so we were not able to implement our tactics. With our bad service, we ‘destroyed’ our own tactics. The Bulgarians had a day off yesterday, so they were fresh and physically superior to us today. We started this tournament well, and if we had had one or two more players on the bench, we might have been able to pull it off differently.”
"Today, Bulgaria played as Top team. In the first match that we had with them, they weren't pushing that hard on the serve. But today they were really strong. They played also better in the middle. I believe they are the best team around all the Qualifier pools. We tried our best but Bulgaria turned out to be too strong," Radovan Gacic, head coach of Austria stated.
On Sunday, Bulgaria meet the team of Israel. However, whatever the outcome of this match will be, the Lions will finish first in the Pool.
