The national team of Bulgaria presented a sensation against Germany in its second match of the EuroBasket 2025 qualifiers. Rosen Barchovski's team beat the reigning world champion 67:62 in front of a full house in the Bulgarian town of Botevgrad. The Bundesteam had not lost since November 2022.
The success is historic and the first for our team, after falling to Sweden 70:84 in the first game of the campaign. Pavlin Ivanov and Cody Miller-McIntyre overcame their ailments and were on the court to help.
The match started as expected and the world champion took a comfortable lead of 19:7 after the first quarter. At halftime, however, the Bulgarian "lions" were ahead after their strongest quarter, which they won 21:8. The two teams returned to the locker rooms with a score of 27:24 in favor of the "lions".
A new tangible advantage followed for the Bundesteam, as they won the third quarter with a seven-point difference and before the start of the last part were again ahead in the result - with a six-point lead (45:39).
The final 10 minutes were quite dramatic, as Bulgaria managed to turn the game right from the start. An emotional final few minutes followed, but the hosts never allowed the world champion to get back into the game.
The most productive of Barchovski's boys was Cody Miller-McIntyre, who scored 23 points, 5 rebounds and 4 assists. Hristo Zahariev added 15 points and had 4 rebounds and 2 assists. Da Silva from Germany also distinguished himself with 15 points. /BGNES
