Bulgaria are the only team with three wins out of three matches in the preliminary round of the 2025 IHF Men’s Emerging Nations Championship, after the hosts extended their winning streak with a dominating performance against Cyprus, 34:19.

GROUP A
Cyprus vs Bulgaria 19:34 (10:18)

These were two teams heading in the opposite directions, with Bulgaria having already clinched the first place in the group, setting up a clash against Nigeria in the semi-finals, while Cyprus were doomed to be last, failing to meet their threshold from the previous edition of the IHF Men’s Emerging Nations Championship, where they were runners-up.

Therefore, for Cyprus, it was going to be a matter of honour providing a good outing here, but they failed to perform at the highest level for the third time in a row, being thoroughly outplayed by Bulgaria, which jumped to an eight-goal lead after the first 30 minutes, 18:10, with another fascinating performance on both sides of the ball.

There was no question about the winner of the match even from the first attacks, with Bulgaria opening a three-goal lead after only 10 minutes, 8:5, with their best scorers, Svetlin Dimitrov and Kristian Vasilev delivering yet again another excellent performance.

Dimitrov finished the first half with eight goals, taking his total at this edition of the IHF Men’s Emerging Nations Championship to 36 goals, having missed only three shots so far. In total, he was on 249 goals in the competition, having featured in every of the five editions played so far.

Vasilev aadded four more goals, as Bulgaria used a 4:1 run and another 3:0 unanswered run to open a seven-goal lead, 15:8, while goalkeeper Nikolay Petrov had another fantastic outing, with eight saves and a 44% saving efficiency, limiting Cyprus to a meagre 38% attacking efficiency after 30 minutes.

Just two months ago, Cyprus beat Bulgaria, 22:21, in the EHF EURO 2028 Qualification Phase 1, but there was no question about a comeback here, as Bulgaria opened the seocnd half with a 7:0 unanswered run, with Dimitrov hitting his 250th goal in the competition in the 37th minute, improving his tally to nine goals in the match and helping Bulgaria create a 14-goal lead, 24:10.

All of Bulgaria’s outfield players tried at least a shot, with only two players missing their chances to score at least one goal, with the hosts extending their lead until the end of the match, when they secured their third consecutive win in double digits, 34:19.

Bulgaria won three out of three in this group and are the only team with a 100% winning record at the end of the preliminary round of the 2025 IHF Men’s Emerging Nationa Championship, setting up a semi-final against Nigeria on Saturday.

Cyprus lost three matches in a row for the first time at the IHF Men’s Emerging Nations Championship and are heading into the Placement Matches, where they are due to face the Republic of Moldova on Friday.

Player of the Match: Svetlin Dimitrov (Bulgaria)