Bulgaria recorded its first loss in the group stage of the European Championship for U18 men, which is taking place in Sofia and Plovdiv. Desislava Velichkova's boys lost to the team of Finland with 1:3 (16-25, 25-22, 19-25, 23-25) and thus took a step back on the path to the final four. Even the European champions of Toni Zetova, who, despite an 8-hour bus trip, came to support their compatriots in "Levski Sofia" hall, could not help. It became clear once again that only one Jasmin Velichkov is not enough, despite his 19 points (including 1 ace). Kasper Vesanen scored the same amount for the winners.
The Finns played tactically correctly throughout the entire match and, without having prominent players, managed to break ours. This happened in the very first set, when it seemed like there was only one team on the court. Logically, we registered a loss with a large difference. And while everyone in the hall attributed this relaxation to the emotions of welcoming the European champions, our team's play until the end of the match showed that this was not the reason.
We managed to equalize the sets with tremendous effort, but our strength and capabilities were limited. In the third set, we again showed weaknesses in reception, the setting was not effective, serves did not trouble the opponent, and even the change of our main opposite hitter did not help. Even the entry of captain Ivanov did not change things in a positive direction. The attack was also not at a high level.
In the last part, we tried to maintain the intrigue almost until the end, but the Finns again played tactically correctly and closed the match, and with that, largely reduced our chances for something better in front of a home crowd.

Tomorrow our team faces the team of Turkey.