Beroe 2016 (Stara Zagora) achieved an extremely dramatic victory over CSKA with 3:2 (23:25, 25:16, 18:25, 37:35, 21:19) in a match from the third round of the men's volleyball Super League. The hosts survived nine match points for the "reds" in the fourth set, and subsequently snatched an incredible tie-break that lasted until 21:19. An unpleasant injury befell Beroe's middle blocker Aleksandar Kordev, who left the court at the beginning of the match.
The capital team, led by Aleksandar Popov, took the lead twice in the sets, but failed to close the match. CSKA won the first set with 25:23, after which Beroe convincingly equalized with 25:16. The visitors again took the initiative and led 2:1 after 25:18 in the third set.
The real drama occurred in the fourth set. CSKA had nine opportunities to finish the match, but the hosts demonstrated exceptional resilience in crucial moments. After a prolonged exchange of points, Beroe snatched the set with an incredible 37:35 and sent the match into a tie-break.
The fifth set offered no less dramatic developments. The team from Stara Zagora took a 5:2 lead, and subsequently increased their advantage to 11:7 and 12:8. CSKA, however, refused to give up.
At 13:10 for Beroe, the visitors won three consecutive rallies, with national opposite Dimitar Dimitrov equalizing at 13:13 with an ace.
A new exchange of points followed, in which neither opponent managed to gain a decisive advantage. At 19:19, Beroe won the next two rallies, with the last point coming after a block against Dimitar Dimitrov. Thus, the hosts put an end to the drama with 21:19.
Dimitrov was the most effective volleyball player in the match with an impressive 35 points. The national opposite made 32 successful attacks out of 68 attempts (47%), to which he added 2 blocks and 1 ace. Despite his excellent individual performance, he ended up on the losing side.
For CSKA, Todor Kostov added 16 points with 62% attack efficiency, Zahari Zgurov finished with 11, and Nikolay Penchev scored 9. Zgurov also played a significant role in reception, taking 40 serves and finishing with 58% positive reception.
In the winning team, Jakub Rzonca was the top scorer with 21 points, 20 of which came from attack with 41% efficiency. Nikola Kotevski added 18 points, including 4 blocks and 2 aces, and Teodor Kamenkov finished with 15 points.
Ivan Latunov contributed 13 points and was chosen as the most valuable player (MVP) of the match. The middle blocker demonstrated high efficiency in attack with 10 successful attacks out of 17 attempts (59%), and 4 blocks were also recorded in his official statistics. Nikola Horeta added 10 points.
The statistics reveal a curious detail from the dramatic clash. Both teams finished with identical attack efficiency – 43% each, with CSKA making 70 successful attacks out of 164 attempts, and Beroe also 70, but out of 161.
However, the team from Stara Zagora had a noticeable advantage in blocking – 14:9, as well as in direct service points – 5:4. Nikola Kotevski and Ivan Latunov performed particularly strongly at the net, with the official protocol recording four blocks each for them. The block also became the decisive element in the last rally, when the hosts stopped Dimitar Dimitrov's attack.
Particularly indicative of the nature of the match is the fact that the two teams played a total of 246 rallies, and only the last two sets offered a total of 112 points.
For Beroe, led by Miroslav Zhivkov, this is a victory that will be remembered not so much for the result, but for the way it was achieved. For CSKA, the bitterness remains from the nine missed opportunities to finish the match already in the fourth set, despite Dimitar Dimitrov's 35 points.