He may have found himself back in the first set, with her Steaua Bucharest to make a temporary surprise, however, Olympiacos brought out quality in Rentis, he did a complete turnaround (3-1 set) and did tlovely qualifying step to the “4” of the Challenge Cup!
The people of Piraeus now have only to do in rematch to be held in Romania (26/1)is to take at least two sets to… advance to the semi-finals, where they will face the winner of the pair Panathinaikos-Orionwith a European ‘forever’ derby more likely than ever!
The match
The Romanians entered the game strongly and took an early lead (4-6). With a counterattack of duration and a nail by Hidalgo, Olympiacos went ahead (9-7), with Steaua catching up with him…again catching up with both teams going point by point until 16-16. There the guests took a +3 lead (16-19) at a critical point, but the Piraeus found the mental reserves and turned it around again (22-21). With the score at 23-23, Petsa went on serve and with two aces made it 0-1 for his team (23-25).
In the second set, the Piraeus were enjoyable as long as they “needed” to play. Hidalgo took an early… lead (4-1), with the Romanians after 9-8, completely losing touch with the score and the difference slipping away (20-11), since everything was coming to Giuliani’s team. Stern was breaking through the blocks, Gustavo was terrorizing his opponents and with eerie composure, the hosts leveled at 1-1 (25-16).
Steaua Bucharest made the mistake of leading 0-3 and Olympiacos punished her! The home team overtook with Stern’s block (7-6), and from then on the match went “downhill”! Hidalgo, Stern, Travitsa and Pagenk opened the gap and with a comfortable run I then made it 2-1 in sets for Olympiakos (25-16)with the guests looking terribly helpless to react.
With the situation having reached a complete breaking point, the fourth set had a “warlike” character, since Olympiacos and Steaua Bucharest went hand in hand until 16-16! However, somewhere there, Stern, Hidalgo, Pagenk and Gustavo’s serve “ended” the match for 3-1 with summary procedures (25-19).
The sets: 23-25, 25-16, 25-16, 25-19
OLYMPIC (Alberto Giuliani): Pagenk 15 (8/10 ref., 4 aces, 3 blocks), Stern 20 (13/30 ref., 4 aces, 3 blocks), Koumendakis 2 (0/2 ref., 60% ref. – 60% excellent), Travitsa 4 (2/2 ref., 2 aces), Linardos 2 (1/2 ref., 1 block), Hidalgo 19 (13/26 ref., 4 aces, 2 blocks, 62% ref .– 38% excellent) / Tziavras (l., 47% sub. – 47% excellent), Dalakouras 4 (3/6 ff., 1 block, 76% sub. – 65% excellent), Papagelopoulos, Gustavao 5 (2 /3 ff., 3 blocks), Koltsiakis (l.)
Read the match live
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I am currently a news writer for News Bulletin247 where I mostly cover sports news. I have always been interested in writing and it is something I am very passionate about. In my spare time, I enjoy reading and spending time with my family and friends.
