Bulgaria recorded a very important victory over Slovenia at the start of the European Championship for men under 20, which is being held in Greece and Serbia. Our team won 3:0 (25:20, 25:22, 25:23) and earned valuable three points. This happened in front of the eyes of the men's national coach Gianlorenzo Blangini, who is part of the staff as a consultant.

The Bulgarians outplayed their opponents in attack, block, and with fewer unforced errors. The most productive player for our team was Kristiyan Titriyski with 17 points (2 aces), followed by Aleksandar Kandez with 12 (1 block). Stiliyan Delibozov had 11 (4 blocks and 1 ace).

The third game proved to be the most contested, in which the Slovenians managed to pull ahead for the first time at the very beginning (2:3), with the difference gradually increasing to 4 points (3:7). The first tie came at 10:10, and there were two more such instances. The Slovenians intensified their serve and managed to pull away again by three points (13:16), thanks to our errors as well, which led to the first timeout called by the Bulgarian staff. However, the Slovenians again increased their momentum and took a 4-point lead (15:19). The difference remained after a held ball call against our team (16:20). Towards the end of the game, it was Titriyski's time, who, after an 'emergency block', brought our team within a point of Slovenia (20:21). The opponent, however, took a 2-point lead before the end of the game (21:23) and it seemed certain they would close it out and force a fourth set. Here again, the fated-to-win Titriyski succeeded in attack, after which he scored an ace to tie the score (23:23). Slovenia's final attack went out, and Bulgaria had its first match point. After an ace from Titriyski, this became a reality, along with the addition of valuable three points to our tally.