The Bulgarian men's national team concluded its participation in the first tournament of the Nations League with a 0:3 (28:30, 22:25, 23:25) defeat to Serbia. The loss proved to be particularly heavy not only due to the final score but also because of its impact on the world rankings.

Before the start of the tournament, the Bulgarian team held ninth place in the world rankings. After the victory over Argentina, the "Lions" climbed to eighth position, but the defeat to Serbia led to a drop to 11th place. At the same time, the Serbian national team overtook Bulgaria and rose to tenth position, with these shifts occurring even before the last three matches of the tournament were played.
Bulgaria started the competition with an unexpected 1:3 loss to debutant Belgium. After that, however, Gianlorenzo Blengini's proteges recorded two impressive victories – 3:0 against Iran and 3:1 against Argentina.
Serbia, for its part, started with two consecutive 3:1 victories against Argentina and Belgium, before losing 0:3 to host Brazil. In that match, coach Djordje Crecu rested some of his key players and used mostly reserves.
Interestingly, the two teams also met just before the start of the Nations League at the friendly tournament "Silesia Cup" in Poland. Then, Bulgaria made an impressive comeback from 0:2 to 3:2 sets.

The first set slipped away dramatically

The start was better for the Serbians, who took a 5:2 lead after a hit out by Iliya Petkov. Bulgaria quickly restored equality through strong performances by Aleksandar Nikolov and Simeon Nikolov.
The two teams went point for point for most of the set. Aleksandar Nikolov was the main scorer for the Bulgarian team, and after an attack by Martin Atanasov and a service error by Nikola Brborac, the national team took a 20:18 lead.
In the dramatic end, Bulgaria had its chances but failed to capitalize on them. After a series of exchanges and missed opportunities, Serbia snatched the first set with 30:28.

Serbia imposed control in the second set

The second set started evenly, but gradually the Serbian team took the initiative. At 14:15, Blengini called a timeout, and a little later, an ace by Lazar Marinovic extended Serbia's lead to 18:14.
Stoil Palev and Venislav Antov came into play for Bulgaria, but the opponent maintained their lead. Despite the efforts of Alex Grozdanov and Martin Atanasov, the Serbians closed the set at 25:22 and took a 2:0 lead.

Good chance, but unrewarded in the third set

Blengini made changes to the lineup and started the third set with Denislav Bardarov and Zhasmin Velichkov. Bulgaria took a 10:6 lead after strong performances by Bardarov and controlled the score for a long time.
After 19:19, however, Serbia managed to turn the tide. During this period, coach Blengini received a yellow card because he angrily threw his folder.

Aleksandar Nikolov kept the hopes of the national team alive, but a block against him brought two match points for the Serbians at 24:22. Nemanja Masulovic ended the match with an attack for 25:23.

Match statistics

Bulgaria surpasses its opponent in attack (47 vs 42 points) and reception (66 vs 59), which shows that the national team was not decisively outplayed in the game elements. The crucial factor was the huge difference in errors h the Serbs got 28 points from Bulgarian inaccuracies against 20 for our team. An additional advantage for the "Blues" came from the serve, where they scored five aces against only one for Bulgaria.

Scorers

Aleksandar Nikolov was once again the leader of the Bulgarian squad with 21 points and almost single-handedly kept the team in the decisive moments. For Serbia, the points were more evenly distributed, which gave more attacking options to Djordje Crecu's team.

After the first week, Bulgaria finishes with a balance of two wins and two losses, leaving a bitter taste for missed opportunities to improve their points tally in the world rankings.

Photos: Nikolay Varadinov