Just like with the Belgium v Finland eighthfinal on Sunday, Monday’s game between Bulgaria and Portugal, serving off at 15:30 local time (07:30 UTC) in Pasay City, will put two of the fans’ favorite underdogs from the pool phase against one another, and again as sad as it will be to see one of them go, it will be just as exciting to see the other one push through to the quarterfinals.
The most recent meetings between these two teams date back to 2019. In a Volleyball Nations League encounter, Portugal surprised Bulgaria with a four-set victory and put an end to a long Bulgarian winning streak in the head-to-head series. Later that year, the southern Europeans got back at their southwestern European opponents with a 3-1 win at the CEV European Championship.
Bulgaria has collected five medals in the history of the World Championships. In addition to their best result, the 1970 silver, the Bulgarians have picked up four bronze medals, most recently in 2006. They are still undefeated at the ongoing edition of the World Championship. In Pool E, they upset two higher ranked opponents, Germany in straight sets and Slovenia in five sets, and topped the pool with a shutout of Chile. They entered the tournament as the number 15 team in the World Ranking and moved two spots up to their current position as number 13. Bulgaria’s 21-year-old rising star outside hitter Aleksandar Nikolov was the best attacker and the second best scorer of the pool stage with 63 spike kills and 71 points in total across the three matches played.
Portugal’s best result at the World Championships was the eighth place they took in 2002. They stormed the 2025 edition with a 3-1 upset of Cuba. After losing to mighty USA in straight sets, they came back from two sets down against Colombia to register their second win and finish Pool D runners-up. These results propelled the team seven spots up the World Ranking, from number 29 before the start of the World Championship to number 22 now. 22-year-old outside hitter Nuno Marques was Portugal’s best scorer of the pool stage with 46 points to his name.
