Germany sweep Bulgaria and leave the bottom of the standings

Germany’s second victory in the Volleyball Nations League 2023 earned the team four spots in the standings as the Europeans went from 16^th to 12^th after their Wednesday success in Anaheim, United States.

The Germans faced Bulgaria, the only team besides them to enter the second day of the third week of the Preliminary Phase with just one win, and prevailed 3-0 (25-22, 25-18, 25-22) with authority.

• Watch Volleyball Nations League 2023 live on VBTV

The result made the Germans surpass Bulgaria, Canada, Cuba and China, now ranking 12^th with two victories and seven points. Bulgaria now occupy the bottom of the standings with one win (six points) and are strongly threatened by relegation.

“It’s the best feeling, we worked hard for this,” said setter Johannes Tille. “We were very unlucky in the first two weeks. It felt like we couldn’t finish the sets and today we did it. The Finals are out of reach for us, so we have nothing to lose. We’re just trying to use these matches to get better as a team and today we managed to do that.”

Outside hitter Moritz Reichert topped all scorers, leaving the court with 14 points, thanks to 12 kills and two aces. Opposite Linus Weber also reached double digits in scoring for the Germans, producing 12 points, with 11 kills and one block.

On the Bulgarian side, outside hitters Martin Atanasov, Asparuh Asparuhov and Denis Karyagin were the main scorers, with 11, nine and nine points, respectively.

The higher numbers of errors made by the Bulgarians (25 to 14) were the main difference in the match, as there was a good balance in the scoring kills, with the Germans getting more aces (four to one), the Bulgarians registering more kills (44 to 43) and the two teams tying in blocks (three).

**Volleyball Nations League 2023: full schedule and results**

Three duels will take place in Anaheim on Friday with Argentina and Germany battling at 13:30 local time (20:30 UTC), Serbia and Cuba dueling at 17:00 local time (00:00 UTC, Saturday) and Bulgaria and Iran measuring forces at 20:30 local time (03:30 UTC, Saturday).

Quick links:
Volleyball Nations League
VBTV
Facebook
Twitter
Instagram
YouTube
Subscribe to Volleyball World's Newsletter