Italy down Bulgaria to claim second consecutive and fifth overall World Championship title!

Italy are the 2025 world champions!

In front of an as many as 15,682 volleyball fans in Sunday’s FIVB Volleyball Men’s World Championship Philippines 2025 final in Pasay City, they beat the young Bulgaria with the score of 1-3 (21:25, 17:25, 25:17, 10:25) to claim their second consecutive and fifth overall world title, after their triumphs in 1990, 1994, 1998 and 2022.
Bulgaria earned silver medal, their second in the history of the World Championships, after 1970 while, earlier on Sunday, Poland beat Czech Republic in four sets to claim the bronze.

Despite the collection of usual errors from the serving line, Bulgaria managed to step two points ahead in the middle of the first set, but then Italy took control with five points in a row on outside hitter Mattia Bottolo’s serving turn and never looked back.
It was Bottolo again who closed the set with a four-point margin. Bulgaria recovered from an early five-point gap in the second set, only to let the rivals run off with a wide advantage again. And when they were close to catching up again, opposite Yuri Romano decided the set with a five aces in a row. Three actions later, another ace, this time from Bottolo, put Italy at a two-set lead.
In third set, finally Bulgaria start to play taking control on the court and took it by a wide margin, and outside hitter Martin Atanasov’s ace put the team at a set point, with opposite Asparuh Asparuhov who closed the set with an attack. Two serving runs by Bottolo decided fourth set, in which Bulgaria officially left the court.
Middle blocker Simone Anzani recorded the World Championship point for a 3-1 victory.

Italy were better than Bulgaria on all element, including unforced errors with 22 to 23, in attack with 46 to 43 in spike kills, in net defense with 10 to 4 kill blocks and, above all, in serving by 13-4 in aces, 7 only from Mattia Bottolo, to which he added two blocks towards 19 points. Yuri Romano also contributed with another five aces and a kill block, towards 22 points through 70% success rate, while outside hitter Alessandro Michieletto also reached the double digits with 11 points.
21-year-old Bulgarian outside Aleksandar Nikolov was once again the top scorer of the match with 23 points and the best scorer of the tournament with a total of as many as 173 points!
In the final, he spiked at a 58% success rate, adding one kill block and one ace to his tally, while Martin Atanasov finished with 11 points, including two aces and a block through 62% in attack.

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🌏| 2025 FIVB World Championship | SEMIFINALS

Saturday September 27, 2025 📍 Pasay City

• 14.30 (Local Time) | Czech Republic – Bulgaria 1-3 (20:25, 25:23, 21:25, 22:25)
• 18.30 (Local Time) | Poland – Italy 0-3 (21:25, 22:25, 23:25)

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🏐| NEXT GAMES – FINALS

Sunday September 28, 2025 📍 Pasay City

• 15.30 (Local Time) | Czech Republic – Poland 🥉1-3 (18:25, 25:23, 22:25, 21:25)
👉🏼18.30 (Local Time) | Bulgaria 🥈 – Italy 🥇 1-3 (21:25, 17:25, 25:17, 10:25)

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