Piraeus, Greece, January 27, 2015. Posojilnica AICH/DOB took revenge from Olympiacos PIRAEUS for its 1:3 home loss in the first leg of the 2015 CEV DenizBank Volleyball Champions League - Men. In the last Pool D leg, the Austrians managed a 3:1 (25-18, 25-23, 18-25, 25-21) away win in Greece to move up to the third place in the final standings, but both teams will have to leave the European Cups stage for the rest of the season. The visitors showed that they have all the qualities of a good volleyball team.
The first set started in a very good rhythm. The visitors took control of the game and went in front with a safe 11-6 difference. Olympiacos temporarily decreased the gap to 12-14, but in the rest of the set, the Posojilnica was better and won by 25-18.
The second set started almost in the same pace with the Austrians having the control of the game and being in front on the scoreboard throughout most of the set. Posojilnica took advantage of the bad defensive line of Olympiacos, but after the technical time-out the Greeks came back stronger and more anxious to decrease the gap in the score. However, the Austrians won the second set by 25-23.
In the third set, Olympiacos improved its appearance and managed to win with the scoreboard showing 25-18, decreasing the score to 1:2 sets.
The fourth set was quite competitive, but Posojilnica managed to gain the advantage and gradually win by 25-21.
Bulgaria’s Aleksandar Simeonov contributed 20 points to the victory and became the best scorer of the match.
Posojilnica’s head coach Luka Slabe said: “We are very happy to be better than Olympiacos today, especially here in Greece. We worked pretty hard for the last month and a half. We were OK today, but we were not great. We are happy because we have room to improve. We are happy to be here, with all these great fans from both sides.”
Posojilnica’s player Stephen Nash said: “We played very well. Olympiacos pressured us with their serves and played hard, but at the end of the game, we were the winners.”
Olympiacos’s player Enea Tzelati said: “This was not a good appearance from us. If we had had a better performance, we would have won the game. We wanted to win against a difficult opponent in order to finish the Champions League with a victory, but we did not make it.”
Olympiacos’s head coach Dimitris Kazazis said: “We finished our journey in the Champions League. It was a very good experience for the team. We keep the positive feedback and we move on to our next goals.”
Click here for more details including match statistics.