Crazy end and victory in overtime. Ukraine beat Bulgaria

The national team of Ukraine has started the qualifying tournament for the 2024 Olympics. Our team’s first opponent was Bulgaria.

At the beginning of the match, the “blue-yellows” began to break in the score and soon the Bulgarian coaching staff had to take a time-out. This did not help the so-called guests: the Ukrainians felt confident on the field, effectively completed the attacks and regularly gained rebounds. The Bulgarians did not play well and the first quarter ended in our favor by 17 points. Kovlyar attracted attention with his effective play, we note Bobrov in defense. And the whole team acted on inspiration.

After the first break, the Bulgarians continued to have problems. The Ukrainians took the lead and increased the lead to 24 points. However, in the middle of the second quarter, the game that the blue-yellows could not cope for a long time started to regress. Ours started to lose, to miss a basket, to lose rebounds. The situation did not change in the third quarter either: the difference in score was inevitably narrowing.

A nervous game began in the fourth quarter: the Bulgarians kept the Ukrainians at a distance of several points. With 1.5 seconds left in the fourth 10-minute period, Simeonov fired a long-range shot from Voinalovich’s hand, giving his team “+2”. But then the unthinkable happened: Petrov made an exit into the three-second zone of Kravtsov, who scored two foul goals. Kravtsov missed a free kick and the game went into overtime.

Despite Petrov’s injury and Kravtsov’s 5th foul, the Blue-Yellows squeezed their opponents in extra time. On Sunday, our team will face Iceland.

Pre-qualification for the 2024 Olympics. Group C

Ukraine – Bulgaria – 80:71 OT (27:10, 13:19, 15:19, 13:20, 12:3)

Ukraine: Kovlyar (25 + 7 assists), Krutous (11), Voinalovich (7 + 6 rebounds), Petrov (5 + 10 rebounds + 6 assists), Kravtsov (8) – start, Zotov, Tyrtyshnik, Mishula (4), Bobrov ( 9 + 11 rebounds), Chumakov, Pustovoy (11 + 7 rebounds)

Bulgaria: A. Ivanov (4), Young (16 + 8 assists), Kostadinov (11 + 7 rebounds), Alipiev (6 + 10 rebounds), Bachev, Dimitrov, P. Ivanov (18 + 5 rebounds + 5 assists), Karamfilov ( 2), Simeonov (12 + 5 rebounds), Yordanov, Stoymenov, Stoilov (2)

Sinan Erdem Dome Arena (Istanbul, Türkiye)

UKRAINE – BULGARIA. TEXT BROADCAST OF THE MATCH