16/07/2014 23:00
Away victory over pre-favourite Slovenia propels Greece into European League Finals
2014 CEV Volleyball European League - Men
Maribor, Slovenia, July 16, 2014. Greece surprisingly edged Slovenia in the second round of semi-final action on schedule for the 2014 CEV Volleyball European League – Men cruising to a 3:1 away victory (25-21, 25-18, 22-25, 25-22) at Lukna sports hall in Maribor to complete a terrific comeback from their 2:3 defeat from last Saturday and make the finals of the competition where they will play Montenegro. These two teams already played each other in the prelims recording one victory each as they crossed their ways in Budva for the last leg of the League Round.
Click here for more information including detailed stats of the matches
Slovenia caught a promising start leading the way by three points at the first technical time-out of the opening set (8:5); however, Greece responded by scoring some points and a couple of easy mistakes by the home side paved the way for a 14:12 lead for the guests. The course of the game changed once more as Slovenia powered back to call for the second technical break by the score of 16:15 in their favour; after a tie at 21, Greece scored the next point thereby prompting a time-out by Slovenia’s head coach Luka Slabe. He stopped the game once more at 21:24 and made a substitution but it was with no effect as Greece cashed the opening set (25-21).
Greece was off to a flying start in the second set leading by 4:0; Slabe asked for another time-out and decided to change setter, with Matija Jereb replacing Gregor Ropret. It did not help much as Greece continued to dominate the scene leading by 8:1 at the first technical time-out. Slabe then decided to make another change and Jan Pokersnik joined the game for Klemen Cebulj. Even though Slovenia scored some points, the home side was still trailing 9:16 at the second technical time-out. Alen Sket replaced Mitja Gasparini as the set was almost gone (10:19) but this time Slovenia could fire back and cut their gap to five points. At this stage it was Greece’s mentor Sotirios Drikos to stop the game once and then again as his side was still leading by 21:18. And Slovenia again helped the guests with some errors; Greece moved up 23:18 and then closed the set at 25-18.
The third set was more closely contested but again Greece set the pace at the first technical time-out. Slabe stopped the game as Slovenia was chasing 6:10 but again he could not change much, and Greece kept a lead of three points also by the second mandatory break. After that the match got quite tight (17:18, 18:19) before Slovenia finally restored the balance at 20 all. This was enough to propel a time-out by the Greek coach and despite this move Slovenia got the lead for the first time at 22:21. A second break asked by Drikos could not prevent the home heroes from winning the set at 25-22.
Slovenia showed that same momentum also in the early stages of the fourth set (5:2) but with a series of five consecutive points Greece flipped the charts around and claimed an 8:6 lead. This margin of two points was kept also at the second technical time-out and then widened to 19:15. Slovenia attempted a late comeback and made it 22 all; after a time-out asked by Drikos, Greece scored another two points to get the opportunity to close the match and they did so by their first attempt, thereby sailing their 3:1 victory and qualifying for the final of the European League.
Mitar Tzourits was once again the man of the match for Greece with an impressive tally of 33 points. Tine Urnaut paced Slovenia with 15.
“I think this victory is very important for us, because we have a young but talented group,” Drikos said. “Every game is therefore like a real challenge for us. I would like to congratulate my players because they won in very difficult circumstances and against a very good, actually a world-class team. Our players showed their wish and desire to play the final. I believe that we delivered a very strong performance tonight and we also had some luck because the difference between the two teams was very small.”
“I would like to congratulate the Greek team, they simply were the better side tonight,” acknowledged Slovenia’s head coach Luka Slabe. “We were simply not good enough to beat this team. Of course we are disappointed. I would like to thank my guys, we have spent three months together, it has been a long summer, very tiring and unfortunately not with a happy end for us. In the second set we simply collapsed in every aspect of the game, Greece did not do anything special, they just played good Volleyball. We performed much better in the third and fourth sets but it was not enough to win. We expected a different result but it simply did not happen.”
|