2006 Men’s World Championships – Hungary & Bulgaria
Romania carry excellent form into second round (FIVB)
05/13/2005
May 13, 2005 – After winning a first round tournament -
Europe Pool C - last weekend, world number 64 Romania
continued their dream run in the 2006 Men’s World
Championship with an excellent come-from-behind 3-1
(13-25, 25-22, 27-25, 25-17) win over world number 40
Slovakia on the first day of the second round tournament
Europe Pool E in Varna, Bulgaria on Friday. Meanwhile,
the hosts Bulgaria, who are the favourites to win the
tournament, eased past Turkey 3-0 (25-21, 25-21, 25-18).
In the 2006 Men’s World Championship first round event –
Europe Pool B in Tiszaujvaros, Hungary, Slovenia got off
to a great start beating Moldova 3-0 (25-23, 25-23,
25-21). Pic: Slovakia try to beat the impressive Romanian
defence
In Bulgaria, Romania continued their hot form, by
beating a side ranked considerably higher than them on
the world rankings. In fact the score line could have
been even more convincing for Romania if they hadn’t
made such a nervous start, handing the first set to
Slovakia through errors.
Tournament favourites Bulgaria, who are ranked 13th in
the world, started with a pleasing yet hard fought
victory over Turkey. Plamen Konstantinov and Co. marked
the debut of their coach Martin Stoev with what was in
the end a comfortable win but it wasn’t all one-way
traffic.
Bulgaria played with the Europe's MVP player for the
2004/2005 season Vladimir Nikolov and their brilliant
captain Plamen Konstantinov, but their class was not
seen on the court in the beginning. However, as all the
home fans were expecting, Konstantinov led the team to
victory, taking responsibility in the most important
moments of the match.
The second day on Saturday will see Slovakia play
Bulgaria (at 17:30 local time) and Romania take on
Turkey (at 20:00 local time) and with the top two sides
advancing to the third round, victories to Bulgaria and
Romania will confirm their place in the next phase.
In Hungary, only the winner will advance to the second
round and with Hungary playing Azerbaijan in the late
match on Friday, the tournament is still wide open.
Saturday, day two of the three-day tournalent, will see
Slovenia play Azerbaijan at 15:30 (local time) while
Moldova takes on Hungary at 18:00 (local time).
