Bulgaria edged closer to a semi-final berth at the 2025 IHF Men’s Emerging Championship, with a dominating win against Great Britain, 35:22, making it two out of two in the competition, after yesterday’s 35:18 win against Paraguay.

GROUP A
Bulgaria vs Great Britain 35:22 (21:13)

After Bulgaria and Great Britain drew, 27:27, in the Qualification Phase 1 of the EHF EURO 2028, just in January, few would have thought that Bulgaria will hold an eight-goal lead at half-time in the two sides’ mutual encounter at the 2025 IHF Men’s Emerging Nations Championship.

Bulgaria had the prerogative to choose their group and chose to face Cyprus and Great Britain, a decision which looked surprising at a first glance, but was vindicated after two strong performances against Paraguay and Great Britain, especially the latter one confirming Bulgaria’s credentials for the competition.

Bulgaria jumped from the gun with a 6:3 lead, but their defence has been nothing short of superb, spearheaded by goalkeeper Nikolay Petrov, who had 11 saves for a 46% saving efficiency in the first half.

On the other side of the ball, it was all about their top scorer, Svetlin Dimitrov, who shined once again. The 34-year-old right wing was everywhere, scoring penalties, converting fast breaks, securing rebounds and even delivering some fantastic shots from the back line.

After putting 12 goals past Paraguay in the first match, Dimitrov added 11 more in the first half against the British team, being the fulcrum behind a decisive 6:0 unanswered run for Bulgaria, which saw the gap balloon to eight goals, 13:5.

Great Britain finally woke up, but it was too little, too late, as Bulgaria were already cruising and boasting a 75% shooting effiicency, with Dimitrov reaching 238 goals at the IHF Men’s Emerging Nations Championship by half-time, when Bulgaria were eight goals up, 21:13.

Great Britain had a better start of the second half, cutting the gap to only six goals, but it was still Bulgaria in the driver’s seat, despite the hosts scoring only five goals in the first 13 minutes of the second half.

But Dimitrov, by far the top scorer of the competition so far, with 28 goals in two matches was still very much at it, finishing the match with 16 goals, while back Kristjan Vassilev added six more goals and five assists to keep Bulgaria firmly in the lead, as the hosts had the eight-goal lead back in their hands, 27:19, with 16 minutes to go.

But in the end it was Bulgaria which delivered the big win, 35:22, dominating the match from start to finish and emerging as one of the big contenders for the title, with a big chance to win the group and finally qualify for the last act, after finishing third in the previous edition, in 2023.

Bulgaria, which also had a fantastic goalkeeper in Nikolay Petrov, with 21 saves and a 49% saving efficiency in this match, can secure mathematically a place in the semi-finals provided Paraguay beat Cyprus in the last match of the day, but nevertheless, are virtually through to the next phase after their two wins in the first two matches.

In the last matchday of the preliminary round, Bulgaria face Cyprus on Thursday, while Great Britain meet Paraguay, as the two sides facing off in this match are favoured to progress to the next phase.

Player of the Match: Nikolay Petrov (Bulgaria)