Bulgaria threw off their campaign at the 2025 IHF Men’s Emerging Nations Championship with a big win over debutants Paraguay, 35:18, with all-time top goal scorer of the competition, right wing Svetlin Dimitrov, scoring 12 goals.

GROUP A
Bulgaria vs Paraguay 35:18 (19:10)

Hosts Bulgaria had the prerogative to choose their group at the 2025 IHF Men’s Emerging Nations Championship and decided to head to Group A, where they faced two European sides in Cyprus and Great Britain, as well as Paraguay.

The first match, the debut one, was against Paraguay, and with only two sides going into the semi-finals of the competition, Bulgaria needed to started strong. And indeed they did just that, with an excellent first half, where they built a nine-goal lead.

But it was not easy from the start, as the South American side, making their debut in the competition, shrugged off a false start, where Bulgaria went on a 4:1 scoring run, to cut the gap to a single goal, 7:6, with 13 minutes to go in the first half.

Nevertheless, Bulgaria started to become stronger and stronger, especially in defence, where they forced seven turnovers from the South American side, while goalkeeper Nikolay Petrov saved seven shots, for a 41% saving efficiency.

And then, it was right wing Svetlin Dimitrov, a legend of the competition, the top scorer of the IHF Men’s Emerging Nations Championship, with 214 goals. The right wing was unstoppable, especially from fast breaks, scoring nine times in the first half, being the fulcrum of a 7:0 Bulgaria run, which proved to be decisive.

By that point, the European side was up six goals, 16:8, an advantage which they improved at half-time, 19:10, with no chance for Paraguay to come back, especially as they only mustered a meagre 38% shooting efficiency, compared to Bulgaria’s fantastic 86%.

Dimitrov, the all-time top goal scorer of the competition and the Player of the Match against Paraguay, with 213 goals prior to this match, delivered even more goals in the second half, finishing with 12 goals, as the gap grew bigger and bigger, with Bulgaria starting the second part with an 8:2 run, to improve their lead to 14 goals, 28:14, with 15 minutes to go.

 Eventually, Bulgaria threw off the competition with a clear win, 35:18, setting them up nicely for the semi-finals battle, with matches against Great Britain and Cyprus.

Bulgaria play tomorrow against Great Britain, with a win seeing them close to secure a place in the semi-finals, while Paraguay feature against Cyprus, as the odds are already stacked against them, playing against three European sides.

Player of the Match: Svetlin Dimitrov (Bulgaria)