Berlin, Germany, January 8, 2020 - Bulgaria claimed a five-set victory 3-2 (25-21, 24-26, 25-22, 20-25, 15-13) against Serbia to win their third match at the CEV Men's Tokyo Volleyball Tournament on Wednesday. They progress to the semifinals on Thursday.
It was a third strong result for Bulgaria coach Silvano Prandi, who praised his team for their hard work and determination. “Yeah, it’s one more good, good match for us. But I think that our team, the Bulgarian team, improve day by day and now it’s interesting to see when we will stop. I don’t know, but every player is growing morally and technically. Tomorrow we play against Germany, right? It will be interesting. We look forward to a good environment, with a good public. A great event needs a great environment.”
Serbia captain Nemanja Petrić acknowledged Bulgaria's superiority in the match and said how disappointed he felt. “I don’t know what to say after this difficult game for us. We believed that we could win this ticket for Tokyo. For some of us, actually for all of us, this was our dream and it’s not easy now to say anything, you know. Bulgaria today was much better, we must say this because they deserve this victory. They were more aggressive. They served really well from the nine metres and it was difficult to play against them because of the way they served today.”
Serbia coach Slobodan Kovac said goodbye to the Olympics as he congratulated his team's opponents. “We play and we lose. Now we have to say goodbye to the Olympic Games. We will cry now, because our quality is better than what we showed here. But we came here with some injuries and physical problems and played the way we did against France and Bulgaria. Congratulations to Bulgaria and France. Now we will go home and we will see what our future brings.”
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