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China made their first step towards the fourth position

Mexico had no chance against Bulgaria, and their selector 'blamed' their lack of focus for the defeat. China took their first step towards fourth place

It was hard to expect Mexico to stand up to Bulgaria, as they are far behind the European selection in terms of quality. The goal was to avoid a severe defeat and leave a good impression, but that failed as well. They could not find a solution for the offense and serve of the Bulgarian team throughout the first two sets, and had trouble organizing their own offense, which reflected itself on the score as they scored only 32 points in the first two set. They were a bit more focused in the last segment, putting together some good actions, which converted to a 4 point lead by the Bulgarians.

They utterly failed on offense, scoring in only 28 of their 72 attacks. The best scorer, with 10 points, was opposite Vargas, with Guerra scoring a point less, which was not enough for a better score. Of the 54 points Mexico scored, they "won" 19 through mistakes by their opponents, which speaks volumes about the quality gap. Selector Sergio Hernandez blamed their lack of focus for this loss:

- The biggest cause of such a defeat is our lack of concentration and patience. Those two qualities were lacking in our game and this prevented us from performing better. We played better in the third set, but we made too many mistakes. We have a day off tomorrow, but we will not rest. We need to find a way to beat China.

China fought a very important duel for the fourth position with Egypt right at the start, and won 3-1 after a great battle, which could have been much easier had they not complicated matters. They had 2-0 and 17-12 in the third set, with a clear route to victory, but relaxed too early. Egypt used that, reduced their lead to 1-2 in sets, and the fourth set had a similar scenario. Here we saw a comeback by the Chinese team, saving five set points for 2-2 and using their fourth for 33-31, winning 3-1 and netting huge 3 points.

Yuan Zhi played a fantastic match, scoring 31 point (29/46), while captain Weijun added 20 points too. The two of them decided the first match, China also dominated in the blocking segment (10-5) and deserved the win when observed overall. The Mexico match is the second they have to win in a row. Barring a major surprise, today's victory would confirm the fourth position for China, allowing them to advance from the group stage.

- I'm happy with the performance of my team in the first two sets, but not the third. We started making too many mistakes, as if the players relaxed and started celebrating too early. This is a warning for the future- said the Chinese selector Guochen.