Bulgaria starts in the VNL against world champions Italy in an attempt to change the negative balance between them

The Bulgarian national volleyball team begins its participation in the 2025 Nations League with an extremely challenging match – against the current world champion Italy. The match will be played on June 11 at 6:00 PM Bulgarian time (live broadcast onMAX Sport 2), as our nationals will seek a good start and a possible surprise against one of the strongest teams in the world.

🇮🇹 Italy with a dress rehearsal against Canada

Before the clash with Bulgaria, Ferdinando De Giorgi's team played a friendly match against Canada in Quebec City and won it with(25-20, 25-22, 25-22). The match provided a good opportunity for warm-up and testing of various players, and the coach will use the indications received to form the starting line-up against our team.📋 Probable starting lineups for the match3:0🇮🇹

Italy

Setter:

Setter:Rychlicki
Opposite:Sani, Bottolo
Outside Hitters:Middle blockers:Anzani, Gargiulo
Middle Blockers: Андзани, Гарджуло
Libero:Lorenzano

🔺 Key absentees: Alessandro Michieletto, Riccardo Sbertoli

🇧🇬

Setter:Simeon Nikolov
Opposite:Venislav Antov
Outside Hitters:Aleksandar Nikolov, Martin Atanasov (possible rotation with Georgi Tatarov or Asparuh Asparuhov)
Middle Blockers:Iliya Petkov, Boris Nachev
Libero:Martin Bozhilov

🔺 Key absentees: Captain Alex Grozdanov (injury)
🔺 Dimitar Dimitrov (opposite)

🕰 History of the last 5 matches between Bulgaria and Italy

Year	Venue	Winner	Result
2024	Ljubljana	Italy	3:0 (27-25, 25-20, 25-21)
2022	Gdansk	Italy	3:0 (25-15, 25-20, 25-23)
2021	Rimini	Italy	3:2 (25-19, 20-25, 25-13, 23-25, 15-12)
2019	Varna	Italy	3:1 (25-14, 25-20, 23-25, 25-21)
2018	Osaka	Italy	3:1 (25-23, 25-19, 21-25, 25-19)

🔍 Conclusion

The balance in direct matches between Bulgaria and Italy in recent years has been clearly negative for our team. Nevertheless, the Bulgarian national team arrives in Canada with their best lineup, with the exception of the injured captain Alex Grozdanov and opposite hitter Dimitar Dimitrov, and possesses a powerful asset in Martin Atanasov. Against the backdrop of absences in the Italian camp of key figures such as Michieletto and Sbertoli, the chances for a more favorable outcome for Bulgaria seem greater.