Silver medalists from the last World Championship, Bulgaria, face Portugal tonight in their second match of Group B at EuroVolley 2026. The match starts at 7:00 PM in "Arena 8888 Sofia".
Bulgaria started the European Championship with a convincing 3-0 (25:17, 25:19, 25:18) victory over North Macedonia. According to the official CEV protocol, the match was watched by 8892 spectators. Aleksandar Nikolov was our national team's top scorer with 19 points.
Portugal had a significantly tougher task at the start. Yesterday, João José's team faced the European champion and world No. 1 Poland and lost 0-3 (12:25, 18:25, 20:25).
The Portuguese started with difficulty, but in the second and third sets, they offered more serious resistance. The Portuguese Volleyball Federation acknowledged Poland's superiority in physical and tactical terms but also highlighted the better periods in their team's play after the first set.
For Bulgaria, today's opponent brings back a very fresh memory. Just a year ago, the two teams met in one of the most important matches in the recent history of our national team – the Round of 16 at the World Championship in the Philippines.
On September 22, 2025, at the "SM Mall of Asia Arena" in Pasay City, Bulgaria defeated Portugal 3-0 (25:19, 25:23, 25:13) and qualified for the quarterfinals.
Back then, the Bulgarians had a clear superiority at the net. Our national team made 37 successful attacks against 23 for Portugal and scored 11 block points against only 2 for the opponent. Aleksandar Nikolov was the top scorer in the match with 19 points – 17 from attack, one from block, and one directly from serve.

The victory against Portugal became another step on Bulgaria's path to the World Championship final. Subsequently, our national team reached the title match, where Italy won 3-1, and Bulgaria finished with silver medals.
The history of official encounters is also unequivocally on Bulgaria's side. Before today's match, the two national teams have met 18 times at an official level, with Bulgaria having 16 wins against only 2 for Portugal.
The data is based on the statistics of the Portuguese Volleyball Federation, published before the Round of 16 at the 2025 World Championship. At that time, the FPV indicated 17 previous official matches between the two teams and only two victories for Portugal – in 1995 and 2019. This means a 15:2 balance in favor of Bulgaria before the match in the Philippines. Our national team's 3-0 success in Pasay City increased the lead to 16:2.
Portugal's last victory against Bulgaria remains the one from the Nations League in 2019, when the Portuguese won 3-1. Just a few months later, Bulgaria took revenge at the European Championship in Montpellier with a 3-1 (25:23, 28:30, 25:23, 25:22) win, when Tsvetan Sokolov was the leading figure for our national team.
What's interesting before today's match is how little the Bulgarian squad has changed in just one year.
At the 2025 World Championship, Bulgaria's squad included Simeon Nikolov, Iliya Petkov, Martin Atanasov, Boris Nachev, Asparuh Asparuhov, Alex Grozdanov, Georgi Tatarov, Rusi Zhelev, Venislav Antov, Stoil Palev, Dimitar Dobrev, Damyan Kolev, Aleksandar Nikolov, and Preslav Petkov.
Twelve of them are also in Gianlorenzo Blengini's squad for EuroVolley 2026. From the World Championship group, Boris Nachev and Dimitar Dobrev are now missing, and their places are taken by Denislav Bardarov and Zhasmin Velichkov.
Thus, Bulgaria practically retains the core of the team that eliminated Portugal a year ago and subsequently reached the World final.
For the Portuguese, the changes are more significant. The EuroVolley 2026 team again features some of the main players from recent seasons – Kelton Tavares, Filip Cveticanin, Alexandre Ferreira, Guilherme Menezes, Gonçalo Sousa, and Lourenço Martins. The squad in Sofia also includes setters Diogo Fevereiro and Bruno Dias, as well as André Pereira, Tomás Teixeira, Nuno Teixeira, Manuel Figueiredo, Rodrigo Costa, and libero Gonçalo Gomes.
Today's match comes with a clear distribution of power at the start of the tournament. Bulgaria is a silver medalist from the last World Championship, plays in front of its home crowd, and started EuroVolley 2026 with a clean victory. Portugal enters the match after a 0-3 loss to Poland and will be looking for its first success in the group.
The statistics from direct official matches are also convincingly in Bulgaria's favor – 16:2 wins. But the last encounter between the two teams also showed something else: a year ago, it was Portugal that stood in Bulgaria's way at the start of the World Championship eliminations. Back then, our national team did not allow a surprise and continued its march towards the silver medals.
The Portugal – Bulgaria match starts tonight at 7:00 PM in "Arena 8888 Sofia" and will be broadcast live on MAX One. The pre-match studio begins at 6:30 PM.

photos: Nikolay Varadinov