2024-09-06 18:05:35
Bulgaria’s national under-19 water polo team lost to Romania 13:18 (2:2, 4:3, 4:7, 3:6) and finished in 12th place at the European Championship in the age group in Burgas.
The “Tricolors” played a good first half, then pulled away with an advance of 6:5, but after the break they allowed a reversal.
Alexander Kamenov and Vladimir Stankov scored 3 goals each, Dario Danovski scored twice, and Georgi Venov, Matrin Ivanov, Pavel Pelov, Samuil Ivanov and Nikolay Marev scored once for the hosts.
Among the rivals, the best with 5 goals was Andrei Tepelus, who played at the Paris 2024 Olympics with the Romanian men’s national team.
Prior to the knockout phase, Bulgaria finished second in Group D after wins over Slovenia and the Czech Republic and a loss to Romania to secure a place in the top 12, before losing to Germany, the Netherlands and Romania again in the match for 11th place.
“Before the championship, I thought that our program should at most be to win two games. So it happened. We had good and contested matches against Romania, especially the first one. And we fell hard twice to Germany and the Netherlands – teams that are light years ahead of us and nothing else could have happened in those matches. These are the realities. We had four weeks of camp in Kranevo and controls with the Turkish squad before the championship and before that another week with matches in Nis.
The boys in the team gave themselves away in the preparation, they played with great desire here in Burgas. It was seen that there was serious growth in the team in terms of collective action both in defense and attack. Of course mistakes were made, against the best opponents there were more mistakes – that is inevitable. The formula for Bulgarian water polo to become stronger is clear – everyday hard work in the clubs”, commented the coach of the national team Ivaylo Pachaliev.