Bulgaria's national team for girls U20 maintained its realistic chances to qualify for the semifinals of the European Championship for this age group, which our country co-hosts with the Republic of Ireland. Borislav Krachanov's girls defeated their peers from Croatia with3:1 (25:16, 25:17, 15:25, 25:17)in their penultimate match of Group I of the tournament, played this evening in the capital's "Hristo Botev" hall.

Lyubomir Ganev came to the hall, literally from the airport,

as did the national coach of the women's national team, Lorenzo Micelli.

Antonina Zetova, the coach of the U18 European champions, was also present, as was the new coach of women's "Levski Sofia", Radoslav Arsov, who has been observing the matches for a second day.

Iva Dudova was the top scorer with 27 points (6 aces), Viktoria Koeva finished with 14 points (2 aces).

Maria Zlatanova contributed 13 points (3 aces).

For the opponent, Ana Burilovic finished with 16 points (3 aces), while Aurora Papac scored 11 points (4 blocks).
After dominating in serving, blocking, and attacking in the first two sets, our players relaxed and the Croatians managed to get back into the match. In the fourth set, Borislav Krachanov's girls made the first break at 5:3, after which they continued to press to take a 5-point lead (10:5). We continued with stable play ", 13:7. After an impressive attack by Dudova, leading to 15:8, things seemed decided in our favor. The Croatians attempted a final surge and narrowed their deficit, but only to 5 points. The score became comfortable for us again ", 21:13. Dudova again scored the winning point ", 25:17.

The Bulgarians are now third in the table with 12 points (4 wins, 2 losses), while the Croatians dropped to fourth position with 11 points and the same balance.

Our qualification for the semifinals depends not only on a mandatory victory over Turkey tomorrow, but also on Croatia's success against Belgium.

photos: Nikolay Varadinov