Last dance with a cup for Panathinaikos in the thriller with Olympiakos!

The last dance had a beautiful ending for Panathinaikos! The “greens” in their last match of the season and also in the last appearance of Lukas Rangel and Axel Jacobsen managed to win the tie-break against Olympiakos (3-2 set) in the closed OAKA and conquer for the second consecutive year and third in the their history the League Cup “Nikos Samaras”.

Exciting match at the Olympic facilities, with Olympiakos winning the first set 22-25 and Panathinaikos responding in the second with a deafening 25-17. In the third, the “red and white” led again with the same score (17-25), while the “green” led the match to the tie break with 25-23. There the “clover” world was the one that… pushed the team to the cup which came after 15-12.

The most valuable player of the final was Yiri Kovar, in a season in which Dimitris Andreopoulos’ team won its second title. Olympiacos now turns its attention to the upcoming Volley League finals where it will face PAOK.

The match:

The game started with Panathinaikos and Olympiakos keeping pace at first set in the tie until the 6-6. Hidalgo however took his… gun and after Pagenk’s point for 6-7 he counted three consecutive aces making the match 6-10 and giving a safety “cushion” to Olympiakos. From there on Hernandez with Pagenk and Kovar with Hidalgo fought over the net with the “green” slot betraying its mistakes. At the most crucial point, Pagen made a terrible block on Hernandez and gave the “red and whites” a three-point lead again (20-23). Then the Cuban diagonal of Panathinaikos sent the ball with a service into the net and “gave” the set to Olympiakos with 22-25.

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The start of the second set was exciting with Panathinaikos finding solutions to the organizational play of the Olympiakos players and getting points from three consecutive blocks for 6-3, forcing Giuliani into a timeout. However, the “red and whites” found answers with Stern’s ace and Hidalgo’s straight nail takes the lead in the point. However, the “greens” stepped on the gas and managed with Hernandez to take the biggest lead in the match for 15-11, while then Rangel and Franco “jumped” the score levels to 21-14. The efforts of Pagenk and Koumendakis were not enough and Bassis with two consecutive aces gave the set ball to Panathinaikos who made it 1-1 in the sets after 25-17.

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Olympiacos was the one that entered the third set strongly and managed to take advantage of the mistakes of the “greens” which were mainly related to the reception. The “red and whites” found four of his first six points from blocks and brought the set within their reach, making the score 10-17. The “greens” continued to be misguided mainly with Kovar and Koumendakis with a terrible block on Hernandez making it 13-21. Dimitris Andreopoulos’ team tried to close the gap with Kovar and Jacobsen scoring important points, but Fragos’ miss serve and Hidalgo’s hit from the “2” position gave Olympiakos the third set 17-25.

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The fourth and most crucial set started with Olympiakos taking a quick and at the same time important lead of three points with Papagelopoulos turning into an unexpected hero and making it 2-5. However, the “greens” managed to come back with a terrible 6-1 run reaching the score to 8-6 in their favor led by Rangel and Petraea. Despite this, Olympiacos with Pagenk and Hidalgo found a leading score making it 10-11. From that point onwards, Panathinaikos and Olympiacos constantly alternated in the score with Kovar giving his team a 22-20 lead at the most crucial point of the match. Despite this, Olympiacos reacted by making it 22-22, but Hernandez, Fragos and Travitsa’s misplaced serve led the match to a tie break with 25-23.

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The derby continued in the tie break with the “eternals” going hand in hand in the score until the moment when Hidalgo’s misplaced serve and Rangel’s block brought the match to 10-8 in favor of Panathinaikos. There the home team with the help of the crowd managed to escape with 14-11 and take the trophy with Pagenk’s missed serve for 15-12.

The sets: 22-25, 25-17, 17-25, 25-23, 15-12.

Here are the match stats…