Bulgaria's volleyball team will clash against European champions Serbia on Wednesday, a day after making a successful start of its campaign at the 2012 Olympic Games - European Qualification for men in Sofia with a victory over Slovenia.

Bulgaria defeated Slovenia 3:0 (25-23, 25-18, 25-22), enthusiastically supported by the hundreds of fans in the Arena Armeec hall in Sofia.

Bulgarian star Matey Kaziyski was the best scorer of the match with 15 points while Tine Urnaut and Mitja Gasparini scored 13 and 12 respectively for Slovenia.

"We knew that we were facing a very good team, one of the favorites in the tournament. We started the game well, but we were too nervous and made too many mistakes. We missed a good opportunity to close the first set and did not let ourselves back into the game," Slovenian captain Tine Urnaut said.

"We followed our technical plan, but we made a lot of mistakes attacking and serving," Slovenia's head coach Veselin Vukovic agreed. "I would like to remind you that we landed in Sofia without many of our key players and our problems in the middle blocker's position were obvious tonight. Bulgaria deserved the win."

"It was very important to start this tournament with a win and to get rid of the nervousness and the pressure on the team," Vladimir Nikolov, captain of Bulgaria, stated. "Another problem came from the last minute injury of our setter Andrey Zhekov. Fortunately, we showed character and fought for every ball from the beginning until the very end."

Bulgaria's mentor Radostin Stoytchev commented: "It was a very complicated game for Bulgaria in terms of the pressure and the unexpected injuries of some of our main players. The most decisive moment came after the second technical time-out of the first set, when we fought to take the lead and never looked back."

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