TURKIYE and Bulgaria completed a sweep of their pool phase campaigns yesterday, giving them the needed boost in the Round of 16 of the FIVB Volleyball Men’s World Championship.
Already assured of a spot in the next round of the 32-nation tournament, world No. 13 Turkiye finished the Pool G preliminaries unbeaten after a 25-21, 25-16, 27-25 victory over Canada at the Smart Araneta Coliseum.
Opposite hitter Adis Lagumdzija showed the way for Turkiye with 15 points, all on attacks, while Ramazan efe Mandiraci added 12 markers to stun the world No. 8 Canada.
“We came here to compete. I think we showed them we can compete with the best teams. I mean, first game against Japan, we had nothing to lose because we know what team Japan is and we won against them, we said, ‘okay, we can compete.’ We knew that already but this is a confirmation, let’s say,” Lagumdzija said.
“So, now, there is no team that can defeat us in our minds so we need to push and play physical volleyball,” he added.
Canada, also advancing to the Round of 16 despite the loss, struggled offensively during the match as skipper Nicholas Hoag, Sharone Vernon-Evans and Fynnian Lionel McCarthy only scored eight points each.
Turkiye will battle the second-ranked team in Pool B in the knockout final phase while Canada will collide with Pool B’s top seed.
Over at the Mall of Asia Arena in Pasay, Bulgaria claimed the top spot in Pool E after annihilating winless Chile 25-17, 25-12, 25-12.
Team ace Aleks Nikolov continued to lead Bulgaria offensively with 17 points while Martin Atanasov and Asparuh Asparuhov contributed 12 and 10 markers, respectively.
“First of all, I’m proud of my team for the win today because these kinds of games that we already qualified and we play against the outside of their group and it’s really hard to play these kinds of games so we went very seriously into the game today and I’m proud of the team,” Atananasov said.
“Our position (in the rankings), it’s amazing. We played great volleyball and I think we deserve the first place in the group.”
