Bulgaria coach Ivan Petkov exchanges greetings with China's Lang Ping on Wednesday
Sapporo, Japan, October 3, 2018 – China captain Zhu Ting recovered from a slow start to score 21 points as China fought back to overcome Bulgaria 3-1 (22-25, 25-22, 25-14, 25-17) on the fourth day of action in the FIVB World Championship at Hokkaido Prefectural Sports Center on Wednesday.
China coach Lang Ping: It was a really good game today. Bulgaria’s block and receive was great. We learned a lot. We played a lot of younger players today and I hope the team will be able to improve.
(Re. setters): Ding Xia had a slight injury so I wanted to go with Yao Di but things weren’t working so well so we made the change. But we weren’t performing badly because of the setter; everyone was playing poorly and we gave Bulgaria points. If we rely on one setter, the team will not be able to do well when the main setter is injured, so we don’t just want one setter.
China captain Zhu Ting: It was a wonderful game today and we learned a lot of things.
China No. 6 Gong Xiangyu: The Bulgarian team’s reception and digs were fantastic and that put us under pressure but in the end we were able to play our regular game and then we were able to win.
Bulgaria coach Ivan Petkov: Our team played really well today, especially in the first two sets we played really good volleyball with good skills and good serve, attack and defence. But to win against a team like China, we still have to play better.
Bulgaria captain Hristina Ruseva: Today, we showed a difference face than yesterday, the face of fighters. I’m really happy we played like this, so emotionally and with such good defence. In all elements we gave our heart on the court and that’s how we need to play in the World Championship.