On September 2 at 20:30 Kyiv time, the third match of the men's national team of Ukraine will take place in the group round of the European Championship 2023. This time, the opponent will be the national team of Bulgaria.
Rosters of the teams
Bulgaria
Nikolay Penchev, who surprised the fans of the Super League of Ukraine with his game this season, plays in the Bulgarian team. Also on the team is experienced setter Giorgi Bratoev, who was once a player of Kharkiv's "Lokomotiv".
setters: Giorgi Bratoev ("Dea Burgas" Bulgaria), Giorgi Seganov ("Alania" Turkey);
libero: Teodor Salparov ("Hebar" Bulgaria), Simeon Dobrev ("Neftokhimik Burgas" Bulgaria);
opposite: Tsvetan Sokolov ("Dynamo Moscow" Russia);
outside hitters: Martin Atanasov ("Lokomotiv" Russia), Asparukh Asparukhov ("Kuzbas" Russia), Nikolai Penchev ("Epicenter-Podolyany" Ukraine), Denys Karyagin ("Toulouse" France), Alexander Nikolov ("Civitanova" Italy);
middle blockers: Nikolai Kolev ("Narbonne" France), Svetoslav Gotsev ("Levski Sofia" Bulgaria), Alex Grozdanov ("Verona" Italy), Ilya Petkov ("Hebar" Bulgaria).
Head coach: Plamen Konstantinov.
Ukraine
setters: Serhii Yevstratov (VC "Prometey"*), Yurii Synytsia;
outside hitters: Oleg Plotnytskyi ("Perugia" Italy), Timofii Poluian ("Milon" Greece), Vitalii Kucher ("Barkom-Kazhany"), Illia Kovalov ("Barkom-Kazhany");
liberos: Oleksandr Boiko (VC "Prometey"), Dmytro Kanaiev ("Barkom-Kazhany");
middle blockers: Yurii Semeniuk, Vladyslav Shchurov ("Barkom-Kazhany"), Bohdan Mazenko ("Barkom-Kazhany"), Volodymyr Ostapenko ("Epicenter-Podolyany");
the opposites: Vasyl Tupchii ("Barkom-Kazhany"), Yevhenii Kisilyuk ("Epicenter-Podolyany").
Head coach: Uģis Krastiņš (Latvia).
Ranking of the teams
After yesterday's victory, the Bulgarian national team rose to 9th place in the European ranking and 30th place in the world. Meanwhile, Ukraine has now dropped to 10th place in Europe and 14th in the world.
Other matches at Euro-2023
It is sad to write about it, but the previous two matches ended not in favor of the Ukrainian team. First, the "blue and yellows" lost to Slovenia (1:3), and the next day they lost to Croatia (2:3).
Bulgarian volleyball players are in a slightly better situation. They quite unexpectedly lost the opening match in Varna to Spain (1:3), but then recovered with a victory over Finland (3:1).
The tournament table of group B now looks like this (as of September 1, 13:00):
It is now essential for the wards of Ugis Krastinš to draw conclusions from the mistakes of past games and to recover first of all psychologically all the more so since Bulgaria will be playing in their home stadium, which is completely full.
European Championship-2023. Group round. Group B. The third match
September 2, Saturday
20:30 Bulgaria - Ukraine
Watch the online broadcast of the match Bulgaria - Ukraine on September 2 at 20:30 on the YouTube channel DIVISPORT.
