Sat, Feb 11 2012

Bulgaria knocked out in Euro Volley 2009 semi

Sun, Sep 13 2009 13:25 CET

byAlex Bivol

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Bulgaria knocked out in Euro Volley 2009 semi

Bulgarian blocking was far from its best against Poland

A jittery Bulgaria was knocked out in the semi-final of the men's European volleyball championship in Turkey, losing to Poland in straight sets (19-25, 28-30, 20-25).

Bulgaria's performance, a far cry from the form the team showed at the start of the tournament, when it beat Serbia and Italy, was its worst at this championship, but head coach Silvano Prandi was quick to praise Bulgaria's opponents.

"They were better than us and the statistics prove it, 32 counterattacks versus 19. Our receiving was often wrong-footed and our opponents played perfectly in many situations," Prandi said, as quoted by Dnevnik daily.

He wished Poland and its head coach Daniel Castellani success in the final: " He played for me at Padua about 20 years ago. I hope Poland win the title."

Despite qualifying at the last moment, in the second qualifying phase for lucky losers, Poland will play the final on September 13 against France, who surprisingly defeated Russia in the other semi-final (25-18, 25-22, 25-27, 15-25, 17-15).

Despite an equal start to the first set, Bulgaria allowed Poland to build a seven-point lead and never looked like challenging. In a tightly contested second set, Bulgaria missed two set balls and never recovered, quickly conceding the third set as well.

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