site.btaBulgaria Qualifies for Volleyball World Championship Round of 16 after Win over World No. 6 Slovenia

Bulgaria's national men's volleyball team secured an important victory on their road to 2025 FIVB's Men's Volleyball World Championship's direct elimination phase on Monday. A 3-2 (25:19, 25:14, 18:25, 23:25, 15:13) victory over Slovenia, ranked sixth in the global ranking, led the Bulgarians to the first place in the tournament's Pool A.

On Saturday, Bulgaria secured a clean 3-0 win over world No. 10 Germany. Their only opponent left to play in the group stage is Chile, ranked 29th in the global ranking.

If they manage to retain the first place, the Bulgarians will meet the second-placed team of Pool D - it features the US, Portugal, Cuba (all currently on 3 points with Cuba having played one match more than the others) and Columbia (currently on 0 points). The US are ranked at No. 5, Cuba at No. 11, Portugal at No. 23 and Columbia at No. 44. Bulgaria currently stands at No. 12 after starting the World Championship at No. 15.

Outside hitter Aleksandar Nikolov has enjoyed two great games so far this tournament, leading the championship in points scored with a total of 54 - 16 more than the Netherlands' Michiel Ahyi. Nikolov scored 26 points against Slovenia and 28 against Germany. 

Middle blockers Iliya Petkov and Aleks Grozdanov lead the tournament in blocks made - both with a total of 7. 

Simeon Nikolov has the third-best rating among the setters, while Damyan Kolev is third among the receivers. 

Bulgaria's aiming at a spot in the 2028 Olympic Games in Los Angeles, US. The host nation will join the five champions of the Continental Championships in 2026, the top three teams of the World Championships 2027 not yet qualified, and the three highest-ranked teams not yet qualified according to the world ranking taken after the preliminary phase of the Volleyball Nations League 2028.

The Bulgarian national team started 2025 at the 19th place of the global ranking. In May 2024, Gionlorenzo Blengini was appointed head coach and led by the Nikolov brothers (Aleksandar is 21-year-old, Simeon - 18-year-old) the team climbed to No. 12.