The Neftochimic 2010 team started the season with a 3:0 (25:18, 25:17, 25:19) victory over Greek Kifisia in the first 1/32 final of the Challenge Cup. The match was played in front of more than 1000 spectators in the new Arena Burgas hall.
Neftochimic started with: Dobromir Dimitrov, Rafał Faryna, Axel Truhchev, Šimon Krajčovič, François Rebeyrol, Krasimir Georgiev, libero – Vladislav Ivanov, while Ventsislav Ragin and Stiliyan Asenov came in as substitutes.
The match, which lasted just over an hour and a half, began with a one-point lead for Kifisia after an attack by Serbian Aleksandar Andonović. Neftochimic took a 3:1 lead with two points from Frenchman François Rebeyrol and an ace from Krasimir Georgiev. Coach Ivan Stanev's team began to maintain a four-point difference - 6:2 and 7:3. The Burgas team also reached 11:6 and 13:8. The difference swelled to six points at 17:11, and then to eight – 21:13. Kifisia, whose top scorer so far with 4 points was former Burgas player Georgi Petrov, managed to cut two points from the hosts' lead – 15:21. In the end, the first game was won by "nafta" with 25:18. Unfortunately, in this part, the hosts' Slovakian middle blocker – Šimon Krajčovič, got injured, and he was replaced by Ventsi Ragin.
The hosts started the second game well, again taking a 3:1 lead. Subsequently, the Bulgarian team secured a four-point advantage – 10:6, and did not relinquish the initiative until the end of the game, taking a 2:0 game lead after 25:17. In the second game, the Polish opposite hitter of "neftochimists" Rafał Faryna played a key role, topping the scorers with 11 points.
Kifisia recovered in the third set, reaching a 5:5 tie. Nevertheless, the host team did not allow a comeback and quickly started to build up a lead, reaching 22:18, allowing the guests to score only one more point to their tally by the end of the set. François Rebeyrol was the top scorer in the match with 17 points, Rafał Faryna added 14, and Axel Truhchev – 13.
The return match is in a week in Athens, and the team from Burgas needs two sets to guarantee their progression to the next round.
