Bulgaria celebrates Independence Day with straight sets against Portugal

Sofia: Bulgaria celebrated its Independence Day by qualifying for the 2025 FIVB Volleyball Men’s World Championship quarterfinals in the Philippines. In Monday’s first eighthfinal match in Pasay City, they took out Portugal in straight sets and booked a spot among the best eight of the championship. Bulgaria’s quarterfinal opponent will be known later on Monday, when it emerges from the sixth eighthfinal match between USA and Slovenia, serving off at 20:00 local time (12:00 UTC).

Bulgaria dominated the first set and, in the end, they could even afford wasting four set points and still close it off at a six-point margin, with middle blocker Iliya Petkov nailing the set winner. Portugal fought back and stayed competitive throughout set two, but lost it by the narrowest of margins after Bulgarian opposite Asparuh Asparuhov scored the 25th point with a block. There was no stopping the southern European team in set three and they knocked their southwestern European opponents out with a 3-0 (25-19, 25-23, 25-13) sweep, shaped up with a monster block by 21-year-old sub-in middle Preslav Petkov for the match winner.

The Bulgarians owned the net and outplayed Portugal in both offense, by 37-23 in spike kills, and net defense, by 11-2 in kill blocks. Swinging at a 55% success rate, 21-year-old star outside hitter Aleksandar Nikolov produced 17 spike kills and added one ace and one block towards a match-high 19 points.

“I am feeling great! I am lost for words a little bit. We are in the top eight! I am super happy we get a chance to go ahead in the tournament. I am super proud and I am super happy, and I hope we can keep it going,” Aleks Nikolov told VBTV after the match. “We were confident. We are gaining confidence with each game, with each set, with each point… And it is key to winning some big games like this one today. We definitely feel the attention of fans and media and it’s nice, but this is on the second level. The first and most important thing is how we play volleyball and to win, which so far is working, so I am happy.”

Portugal outdid Bulgaria from the serving line by 6-4 in aces. They also made one unforced error fewer than the opponents, 23-24. Outside hitter Lourenco Martins authored three of those aces. He put up on kill block and emerged as the team’s best scorer with a total of 10 points.

“Personally, I am super proud of my team. Although I couldn’t help much during this tournament, I am really super proud of what we have done; what they have done… It was the first World Championship for most of us. A lot of young players playing for the first time at an arena like this, in front of amazing fans like this and arriving to this phase, playing against an amazing Bulgaria, makes me really, really proud of this team,” stated Portugal’s star captain Alexandre Ferreira. “When we came here and we played our first game against Cuba, 90 per cent of people didn’t believe that we could beat them. But we got here and we won. Today was the same spirit, the same vibe, the same why-not attitude – we are going to push, we are going to try… That second set was close and maybe, if we had won it, it could have made the difference.”