Ready for the Champions League men’s volleyball opener is Olympiacos, who face Montenegro’s Radnik Bjelina at 19:00 and are looking for a win ahead of their second group game on Thursday against Partizan at the same time.
The “red and white” delegation left on Tuesday for the Serbian capital.
The assistant coach, Antonis Vourderis, emphasized that: “It is one of the big goals of the year, to enter the groups of the Champions League, I think we deserve it. These games are the reward for the very good run we had last year by winning the championship, so it’s only fair that the team is here.
When we talk about Serbian teams, we are talking about dangerous teams from Serbia and Bosnia. They have the Serbian school, young teams, aggressive and always in there they are very dangerous, but we are well prepared, we have done a good scouting and we are ready to cope with the difficulties of these games.
The team cannot be completely ready, no, we are in the last stage of our preparation, but I am satisfied because the preparation is going well, smoothly. So, based on the programming we’ve done, the team is at the level we think it should be at this time.”
Raphael Koumentakis added: “We are very excited that this journey is starting for us and we hope it will be a very long one. Last year, we had a terrible experience in Europe, the team has remained almost the same. Two difficult games at the beginning, this is the price of Europe, you have to be ready faster, with more stamina and consistency.
But it is a very, very nice feeling to compete with your team in Europe. I wish all the athletes to be healthy, to be united in the difficult times that will come this competitive year, I hope for the best”.
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