"Honestly, in my opinion, we started well. We were mobilized, there was intensity in movement - very important against a team we know we are superior to," Alex Nikolov toldvolleyweek.bg. "I'm glad that this time we managed to show a stable, quality game.
Stoil Palev got involved very well. He scored a center pipe right at the beginning, exactly as instructed. He managed to include me as an opposite, even though we haven't trained much together. We handled the back balls well. He is different from Moni in style and setting, but he diversified the game and helped a lot for the victory.
We are very upset about the match with Cuba. In my opinion, we outplayed them even on a day when we didn't play well. We made a lot of unforced errors, but despite that, we had a chance to beat them. Today Cuba lost narrowly to the Olympic champion, so that says a lot. But we are looking forward - tomorrow against Poland we go out to get the maximum!
It doesn't matter who will be the starting setter. I have trained equally with both Moni and Stoil, so I believe the team will play strongly in any configuration. We're fighting with all our might - that's it!
The new structure with three passers and me as an opposite worked. Even on Wednesday, when things didn't go completely our way, we still managed to stand up to Cuba. Today we had high efficiency and that is also due to the good organization in attack.
I am extremely happy to be here again, to wear this jersey and this flag. Last year was very difficult for me - mainly because I couldn't play for the national team. Now we have five wins and we want at least one more. I think we deserve it. We play relatively consistently throughout the entire Nations League. We are not yet a top team, but six wins will be a serious achievement.
At the World Championship, we are in a group with Germany, Slovenia, and Chile. We don't underestimate anyone, but Chile is a more convenient opponent. And we have already beaten the other two teams in the Nations League. I hope this is for the best. We believe we are equal and will fight to get out of the group."
