The men's volleyball team of Dea Sport, who won the Bulgarian Cup last season, lost 1:3 (25:20, 19:25, 19:25, 15:25) their away match against Omonia Nicosia from Cyprus in the first leg of the 1/16 finals of the CEV Cup tournament.
The Burgas team could not rely on the experienced - Georgi Bratoev, Valentin Bratoev, Teodor Todorov, and Nikolay Nikolov, but despite this, the boys played a strong first set, in which they managed to win 25:20.
The Burgas team started badly in the second part and allowed Omonia to hold the initiative. In the end, the Cypriots reached 25:19, thereby leveling the score 1:1.
Dea's volleyball players could not shake off their poor performance in the second part and conceded a deficit of 0:5 in the third. Subsequently, they reduced their deficit to 9:11, but had no more strength and lost again with 19:25.
The fourth set again started with a 5:0 lead for Omonia, and subsequently, the hosts from Cyprus managed to maintain a distance and reached 25:15 in their favor, thus winning the match with 3:1 sets.
The return leg in Burgas is on November 20 at 7:00 PM.
Omonia - Dea Sport 3:1 (20:25, 25:19, 25:19, 25:15)
OMONIA: Sergey Antypkin 2, Theo Lopes 18, Robinson Dvoranen 18, Fernando dos Reis 15, Angelos Alexiou 7, Christodoulos Antoniades 4 - Canaris Papas - libero (Orestis Papadimitriou 1, Nikolas Faoutis, Antonis Mavromatis)
DEA: Ivan Uzunov 2, Patrick Lamanec 15, Jonatas Cardoso 11, Dimitar Vasilev 20, Viktor Babuzhia 3, Miloslav Dimov 4 - Kristiyan Petrov-libero (Viktor Tomov, Konstantin Nechev, Ivan Dunkov-libero)
Although they put up a fight against one of the strongest Turkish teams - SC Ankara, Neftochimic lost 0:3 (20:25, 24:26, 18:25) in the first 1/16 final of the Challenge Cup in a spectacular match in front of about 1000 spectators at "Arena Burgas". The second set was particularly attractive, in which the guests snatched victory with 26:24.
SC Ankara took a 2:0 lead in the second set and tried to maintain this 2-point advantage. However, VC Neftochimic 2010 showed character and drew level - 8:8 from 6:8. From there, it started to be played point for point again. In the middle of the set, however, SC Ankara stepped on the gas again and pulled away to 15:12. VC Neftochimic 2010 also demonstrated character here and leveled again - 17:17 after a successful block by Rozalin Penchev. The Turkish opponent again moved ahead - 19:17, but the "Neftochimics" made a comeback - 20:19! They also made it 21:20, but SC Ankara's Australian international - Thomas Edgar, leveled, and then the guests reached 23:21 after a block by the bronze Olympic medalist with the USA, Garrett Muagututia. Another tie followed - 23:23! Still, Nedim Özbey's chosen ones were the first to reach set point - 24:23. The "Neftochimics" leveled again - 24:24, but in the end, victory in this thriller was forged by the guests with 26:24.
VC NEFTOCHIMIC 2010:Dobromir Dimitrov 4, Rafal Faryna 12, Axel Truhchev 13, Shimon Krajčovič 1, Rozalin Penchev 7, Ventsislav Ragin 1, libero - Vladislav Ivanov (Krasimir Georgiev 3, Stiliyan Asenov, Stoyan Dimitrov)
SC ANKARA: Ulaş Kiyak 1, Thomas Edgar 14, Garrett Muagututia 13, Mustafa Koç 5, Salvador Hidalgo 10, Mustafa Cengiz 2, libero - Beytullah Hatıpoğlu (Batuhan Avcı 1, Dogan Karakoç, Muhammed Kaya)
The return leg is in a week in the Turkish capital.
