Varna, Bulgaria, August 9, 2019 – The host of Pool A of the FIVB Tokyo Volleyball Qualification – Bulgaria claimed a 3-1 (25-11, 33-31, 19-25, 25-19) victory over Egypt in their opening game of the competition.
Silvano Prandi, Bulgaria head coach: "We made a very significant step in the tournament. It was difficult but I am happy that we managed to win. Every upcoming match is the most important match and I expect that we will improve our performance game by game. I am satisfied with the way we controlled the match after we lost the third set. At the end I would like to say a big thank you to our fans. They were amazing again!"
Tsvetan Sokolov, Bulgaria player: "It looked like we didn’t have an opponent in the first set. The team of Egypt made many mistakes and on the other hand we performed almost perfectly. But something completely changed after that. They started to play better and better, to receive, to attack and counterattack and we just faced a different team. It was really hard but we achieved a very important win at the end."
Guido Vermeulen, Egypt coach: "We started the first set a little bit nervous and we made many mistakes. After that in the second one we improved our game and we just missed our chance to tie. Bulgaria proved that they are the better team but I am proud of my boys because they fought hard tonight and made it difficult for Bulgaria."
Atia Rashad, Egypt captain: "It was good start for us. Our team can learn a lot from this match. We made some changes in our squad and it is a good experience for all the new players to participate in such a high level tournament. We are looking forward our next game against the Olympic Champions from Brazil. We will try to play better and to avoid the errors we made today. We don’t want to play under pressure. We are here to have fun and enjoy every rally on the court."