Russia – Bulgaria
Russia opened the gap by the second technical time-out of the first set (16:12) and eventually controlled the operations up to the end (25-20).
Supported by their tallest player, Alexey Kobilev, Russia dictated the pace of the game also in set 2 (8:4, 14:9); Kobilev was regularly called by setter Roman Zhos and he converted many attacks to move the count up to 2:0 (25-22).
Bulgaria rushed to a 6:1 lead in set 3 before the score got close up to the second technical time-out; Bulgaria showed great momentum and a spike by their opposite Ivan Ivanov sealed the final 25-21.
After a close start (6:6), Bulgaria imposed their quality also in set 4 (8:6, 16:8) and rapidly cruised to the final 25-15 to call for the tie-break.
There Russia found back their best play (3:1, 8:3), Bulgaria made too many errors and this paved the way for the final 15-6 and 3:2 in favor of the players captained by Nikita Axyutin.
