25/07/2015 23:45
Greece survive five setter with Croatia to keep immaculate record
2015 CEV Volleyball European League - Men
Rovinj, Croatia, July 25, 2015. Greece emulated Slovenia and Estonia and on Saturday night the blue and white team cruised to their fifth consecutive victory in the 2015 edition of the CEV Volleyball European League – Men after fighting for five sets with hosts Croatia. The visitors from Greece showed a lot of determination as well as the right focus to get the upper hand at the tie-break (21-25, 25-22, 23-25, 25-15, 15-12) after coming back twice from one set down.
Though home hero Ivan Raic top scored in the match with 29 points and Danijel Galic added another 17 to the tally of Croatia, this was not enough to celebrate a home win. Greece’s team work and solid performance were enough to edge past at the end of a match where the visitors were paced by Athanasios Protopsaltis and Georgios Petreas who registered 17 and 11 points, respectively.
Greece’s coach Sotirios Drikos said: “It was a very tough match also because we knew our opponent very well. Tomorrow is another day and we have another match. We will try to focus on the weak points we got to see tonight. What makes this competition quite challenging is that the next day you have to play again the same opponent but you have to perform better than the night before.”
Croatia’s mentor Igor Simuncic said: “The second set was the crucial moment of the match. If we had moved the score to two sets to none in our favour, it would have been very difficult for Greece to come back into the match. It was evident that we could not maintain the same level of energy and intensity for the whole match. We played against a team that had come here to win and so they did, playing with a lot of confidence. We have to be realistic and accept that this loss is somehow compromising our chances to make the Final Four tournament in Poland, so for the next matches we will give to some younger guys the opportunity to play and gain experience.”
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