No wonder he was crying after Bulgaria defeated Germany yesterday.
Bulgarian head coach Plamen Konstantinov praises Nikolay Penchev for his great performance and reveals the outside hitter has just lost a family member a couple of nights ago.
Coach Plamen revealed some sad news during the post match press conference:
“The man today is Niki Penchev!
The whole team played this match for him! He lost his stepfather the night after the match with The Netherlands and managed to overcome his family tragedy and his pain.
He played really well and delivered a fantastic match actually like the rest of the team. He is the man today and this victory is for Niki! The match today was not the same like the one in the group stage. Today Germany played better and the match was close.
One plays a match like this with a burning heart and a cold mind and this is the most difficult thing to do. For sure, France is the favourite in our semi-final.
They played some great volleyball this year but we will see what happens.”
On behalf of the volleyball community, our deepest condolences to Nikolay and to his family.
Bulgaria faces tourney favorite France in the Semifinal Round.
(images: cev.lu)