Painful defeat for Bulgaria against Germany at EuroVolley 2026 in Sofia

Bulgaria’s men’s national volleyball team surrendered a 2:0 lead and lost 2:3 (25:21, 25:21, 19:25, 23:25, 12:15) to Germany in the round of 16 of the European Men’s Volleyball Championship, in front of 12,198 spectators in Sofia. The match lasted more than two and a half hours.

The defeat brought an end to Gianlorenzo Blengini’s team’s campaign, while Germany will face European champions Poland in the quarter-finals on September 22.

Bulgaria finished the tournament with four wins and two defeats, but once again failed to reach the quarter-finals, the second consecutive edition in which the team has fallen short of the last eight. Three years ago, Bulgaria, who went on to become world runners-up in the Philippines a year ago, were eliminated by France at the same stage.

Blengini started the match with Simeon Nikolov, Aleks Grozdanov, Aleksandar Nikolov, Iliya Petkov, Asparuh Asparuhov, Denislav Bardarov and libero Zhasmin Velichkov.

Aleksandar Nikolov was the match’s top scorer with 23 points, while Asparuh Asparuhov contributed 13 for Bulgaria. Eriк Röhrs led Germany with 20 points, while Anton Brehme added 14 and Christian Brand 13.

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Edited by Iliyan Hristov, BNR Horizon