14/09/2016 22:09
Bulgarian ‘Lionesses’ confident ahead of home European qualifier
2017 CEV Volleyball European Championship - Women
Sofia, Bulgaria, September 14, 2016. “Romania will be our toughest opponent in these two qualification tournaments in Sofia and Piatra Neamt,” said the coach of the Bulgarian women’s national team Ivan Seferinov (pictured) before the start of the first qualifier for the 2017 CEV Volleyball European Championship – Women which will take place at Hristo Botev sports hall in Sofia from September 16 and 18. The hosts were drawn in Pool E together with Romania, Switzerland and Montenegro.
“We started our preparation in August and everything has been done at a really high level. We don’t have any problems with injuries and all of my players are ready for these important matches. We have a good team which is supposed to win this qualification,” continued Seferinov.
On the first day of the tournament Bulgaria will play Switzerland. “This is an unknown team for us. We have some video information we have been scouting. Switzerland is a good team and they play clever Volleyball, so to speak, but I trust my players and I think we will beat them. On the second day we will play against Montenegro, a team which recently beat Greece by 3-1 in a friendly match. Obviously, they are good team but on the first day they will play against Romania, so we will have enough time to watch this match and to analyse it. Romania didn’t have a good European League this season and after this competition they made a lot of changes. Now they have a new coach, some new players. I watched a friendly match between them and France, so we know what to expect,” said the Bulgarian coach.
“I’m satisfied with the friendly matches we played because I had an opportunity to use all my players and to choose the right ones for this qualification,” added Seferinov.
The captain of the team, Elitsa Vasileva is also confident and believes that Bulgaria is able to qualify for #EuroVolleyW in Azerbaijan and Georgia next year.
“Our team is ready for the qualification. We didn’t play against Switzerland in the last three, four years, so we must scout them well,” she said.
“We are absolutely motivated to claim first place in our pool. I hope we will be able to perform at the highest level and will qualify for the European Championship”, added opposite Emiliya Nikolova.
“We have a great team spirit and all of my teammates believe in a performance which can help us qualify for the European Championship,” concluded 20-year-old outside spiker Gergana Dimitrova.
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