07 December 2023

Olympiacos qualified to the next round of Challenge Cup!

Olympiacos secured the qualification although it didn’t have the expecting performance. Inegol impressed but the win of the ‘’Legend’’ in the first game and the great performance in the golden set led to the qualification to the next round. The next opponent is the French team Tours with the first game taking place on Wednesday (06/12) at ‘’Renti’’ sporting hall.

Key action:

At the beginning of the first set, Inegol had the lead (6-8). Olympiacos equalised 11-11 and was preceded 13-12 with a block by Petreas. The Turkish team went ahead 15-16 in the second timeout but the ‘’Reds’’ turn down the game with three consecutive points. There was a balance for the rest of the set and finally, Inegol won 24-26.

Olympiacos improved its performance in the second set and equalized. It was keeping the lead in the whole set as it faced the services of Inegol which had created problems in the first set. The ‘’Reds’’ had the set under control (19-12) and won it 25-17.

The third set wasn’t good for Piraeus’ team. Inegol had the lead and although a block of Aleksiev reduced the margin (18-19), the Turkish team won 20-25. Its performance was also excellent in the fourth set. It kept the set under control and led the match to the golden set.

The ‘’Legend’’ was dominant and kept the lead until Inegol drew 11-11. A point by Aleksiev and two blocks by Drzyzga and Petreas gave the win and the qualification to Olympiacos.

Match stats:

The sets: 1-3: 24-26 (28’), 25-17 (24’), 20-25 (26’), 21-25 (26’), Golden set: 15-13 (17’)

1st set: 6-8, 15-16, 21-20, 24-26

2nd set: 8-5, 16-11, 21-14, 25-17

3rd set: 6-8, 14-16, 18-21, 20-25

4th set: 4-8, 14-16, 17-21, 21-25

Golden set: 5-3, 10-8, 12-11, 15-13

Statistics:

Olympiacos (Munoz Benitez Fernando): Oivanen 23 (21/38 attacks, 1 ace, 1 block), Petreas 9 (5/9 attacks, 1 ace, 3 blocks), Bohme 5 (3/6 attacks, 2 blocks), Drzyzga, Aleksiev 20 (19/32 attacks, 1 block, 32% pos-21% exc.), Rauwerdink 16 (14/20 attacks, 2 blocks, 65% pos-46% exc.), Stefanou (L, 67% pos-31% exc.), Daridis (L), Christofidelis, Zoupani 1 (1/2 attacks), Stivachtis, Andreadis

Inegol (Zoroglu Levent): Catal 2 (1 ace, 1 block), Antanovich 18 (15/22 attacks, 3 blocks, 67% pos-39% exc.), Almaz 9 (6/10 attacks, 3 blocks), Hacibekiroglu 3 (2/2 attacks, 1 block), Husaj 19 (16/34 attacks, 1 ace, 2 blocks, 60% pos-32% exc.), Klapwijk 23 (19/39 attacks, 3 aces, 1 block), Dengin (L, 60% pos-44% exc.), Basaran 6 (2/3 attacks, 1 ace, 3 block), Tokat, Cinar, Ayhan

Quotes:

Benitez said: ‘’The most important issue is that we won the golden set and qualified to the next round. The opponent played without pressure, had good services and made good offensive choices. However, we facilitated them with our performance. In the golden set, we did what we had planned for the whole game. Our services and blocks were good and achieved our aim. We need more games like this so as to improve our performance.’’

Rauwerdnik stated: ‘’It is crucial that we qualified to the next round. We knew that the opponent would be good and it pressed it especially in the second set. We were not good but achieved to qualify. We had a difficult program of consecutive tough games and we want to continue to take positive results.

Petreas mentioned: ‘’I regard that Inegol is a good team and its players could have a leading role in any Greek team. For us, it was a difficult period as we had a game every three days. The team is tired but at the end we showed our quality. The next opponent is a strong team. I have played in France for five years and I know that Tours has a great squad. We have to be very careful and hope that the fans will help us to qualify.’’