Bulgaria concluded its participation at EuroVolley 2026 in the most painful way possible. The national team took a 2-0 lead but allowed a complete comeback against Germany and lost 2:3 (25:21, 25:21, 19:25, 23:25, 12:15) in the 1/8 finals at "Arena 8888 Sofia".
In front of 12,198 spectators, Gianlorenzo Blengini's team controlled the match in the first two sets, but then the Germans gradually imposed stronger pressure from their serve and changed the game. The match lasted 137 minutes, and the 'Bundesteam' advances to the 1/4 final against Poland.
Bulgaria won the first set 25:21 after managing to pull away in the middle of it. Germany closed the gap to just one point at 17:16, but Alex Nikolov's serving run at the end proved decisive.
In the second set, the 'Lions' again dictated the play and reached a six-point lead at 16:10. The Germans made a dangerous comeback to 20:19, but Bulgaria held on. An ace from Nikolov and a direct point from Denislav Bardarov's serve closed the set again at 25:21.
At 2-0, the match seemed to be in Bulgaria's hands, but Germany changed its course in the third set. The 'Bundesteam' took a 12:9 lead, did not allow the Bulgarians to turn it around, and reduced the score after 25:19.
Bulgaria's biggest chance to close out the match came in the fourth set. The national team led 16:14 before Germany made a comeback. Tim Peter inflicted serious damage from his serve, and the 'Bundesteam' pulled away to 22:18. Bulgaria found the strength to come back to 22:21, but the Germans held on – 25:23 and a tie-break.
In the decisive set, the two teams remained even until 8:8. Then Germany won two consecutive rallies for 10:8 and never relinquished the lead. At 14:12, a service error from Martin Atanasov ended the match – 15:12. It was the service errors that tipped the scales in favor of the 'Bundesteam' – four consecutive missed serves from our players!

Alex Nikolov finished as the top scorer in the match with 23 points, including 8 break points. After him for Bulgaria, Asparuh Asparuhov scored 13 points, Alex Grozdanov – 10, Iliya Petkov – 8, Martin Atanasov – 7, Simeon Nikolov – 6, and Denislav Bardarov – 5. For Germany, Erik Röhrs was #1 with 20 points, followed by Anton Brehme with 14 and Tobias Brand with 13.
Brehme had an impressive attacking match with 11 successful attacks out of 12 attempts – 92%. Iliya Petkov finished with 6 out of 8 – 75%, Martin Atanasov was also at 75% with 6 out of 8, and Alex Grozdanov scored 5 out of 9 attacks and added 4 blocks.

Bulgaria has more aces (13:11), more blocks (8:7), more attack points (51:48) and significantly better reception. However, Germany wins 41 points from Bulgaria's errors against only 32 in the opposite direction. It is this 9-point difference that turns the overall balance to 107:104 for the Germans. One of the reasons for the comeback is most evident in the numbers - Germany's serve. The Bundestteam finished with 11 aces, with Rörs and Bremme each making 3, and substitute Tim Peter also adding 3. It was Peter who made a huge difference from the service line in the fourth game. For Bulgaria, the attacking burden again fell mainly on Alex Nikolov, while Germany received a much more distributed scoring contribution from Rörs, Bremme and Brand. Bremme's 92 percent are particularly impressive - the German middle blocker was practically unstoppable when he received the ball. Prime Minister Rumen Radev, Speaker of the National Assembly Mihaela Dotsova, BOC President Vesela Lecheva and Hristo Stoichkov were in the stands. Thus, Bulgaria left the European Championship after a match in which they were only one game away from the quarterfinals. Germany survived after being down 0:2 and continues against Poland.

photos: Nikolay Varadinov