He also swept Partizan and Olympiacos became… mighty!

Paver in Belgrade o Olympic, went over and over Partizan! The “red and white” fully imposed their rhythm against the Serbs and after the victory-qualification in the premiere, prevailed in the second match as well 3-1 settaking a strong position in the Champions League draw!

Great performance, with pluralism in the attack and excellent Gustavo, for Olympiakos, who also had a very good night with Pagenk.

Now, in the last round of the qualifiers, Olympiacos is expected to face teams that finished second in the remaining groups of the second round.

The match

With the bad hit of Koumendakis, but also in the first year of Kavar, took the lead They were partisans against Olympiakos with the “red and whites” reacting with Pagenk reducing. Partizan did it 3-1 with Mrdak nailing out and the score coming to 3-2. The team of Antonis Vourderis took the lead for the 1st time with 4-3. The European Cup Winners forced Partizan to commit service errors with Zoupani’s pipe and Pagenk’s block bringing the score to +3 for Olympiakos (10-7) and Partizan’s coach calling time out.

Piraeus worked exemplary in the first half attacks with Pagenk being the main executor. The hosts continued to make mistakes and trailed for most of the first set. Olympiacos “built” a run when Hidalgo went on serve bringing the score to +3 (16-13) but the fourth stopped in the net. THE Gustavo was excellent raising a wall above the Serbian net and with two blocks and an imposing finish in front of Jankovic kept the lead but the “black and white” after a short 2-0 run with Tadic and Mrdak reduced the score to 19-18 and in then equalized. The first season returned to the Olympiakos game and again with Pagenk as the protagonist, the “red and whites” reached 21-20, while Tadić’s straight shot gave the Piraeus two points. The block out won by Hidalgo while Zupani’s ace gave the set ball to Olympiakos. The set closed at 25-22 for the “red and white” for the 1-0.

It started in an identical way second set, as Partizan took a 1-0 lead with Olympiakos “turning it around” thanks to a misplaced serve by the hosts and a point by Zoupanis. The match came back to a tie (3-3) with Gustavo making two terrible blocks on Tadic for 5-3 and the coach of Partizan hastily calling a time-out.

Upon returning to the taraflex, the Serbs went on a 4-0 run thanks to two mistakes by Olympiakos and two blocks for 7-5. The score swing from that point on had the two teams alternating in the score and one tying the other. From Gustavao’s point and at 15-14, Olympiacos did not manage to get ahead of the score, but stayed in the game, always equalizing.

At the most crucial point, the Serbs took a four-point lead, after the “red and white” mistakes (24-20), with Partizan drawing 1-1 (25-20) from Mrdan.

Explosive start for Olympiakos in the third set, with the “red and whites” taking a quick 4-0 lead, the hosts reducing the score to 5-3 and the Piraeus team escaping again to +4 thanks to an ace by Travitsa (7-4). The team from Piraeus made… a parade in the third set having a permanent lead of four to five points, a lead which was widened after the ace of Zoupanis (16-22) with Olympiakos finally reaching 2-1 with 25- 19.

The picture of the fourth set was similar, since Olympiacos came in determined to take it, quickly taking an early four-point lead (11-7) led by Koumendakis. Partizan gnawed away at the difference, but the “red and whites” took the lead with 17-13, forcing the coach of Partizan to call a timeout. However, until the end nothing changed and Olympiacos got another victory that makes them… powerful.

The sets: 22-25, 25-20, 19-25, 16-25

*Partizan’s points came from 2 aces, 41 attacks, 8 blocks and 29 opponent errors while Olympiacos’ points came from 5 aces, 42 attacks, 11 blocks and 37 opponent errors

PARTIZAN (Bojan Janic): Bichanin, Marinovic 10 (10/25 ff., 50% subs. – 42% excellent), Mrdak 16 (14/34 ff., 1 ace, 1 block), Tadic 18 (14/32 ff., 4 blocks, 37 % pt. – 27% excellent), Jankovic 5 (2/6 pt., 3 blocks), Cvetkovic 1 (1/4 pt.) / Krsteski (pt., 27% pt. – 13% excellent), Dopuj 1 ( 1 ace), Popovic (l.), Djurdjevic, Aleksic

OLYMPIACOS (Antonis Vourderis): Pagenk 10 (9/14 ff., 1 block), Gustavao 6 (2/5 ff., 1 ace, 3 blocks), Koumendakis 15 (10/20 ff., 5 blocks, 56% sub. – 52% excellent) , Zoupani 13 (11/28 ff., 2 aces), Travitsa 4 (2 aces, 2 blocks), Hidalgo 10 (10/19 ff., 50% sub. – 25% excellent) / Tziavras (min., 48% sub. – 42% excellent)