Greece: Another surprise! Clamorous comeback from 0-2 to 3-2 of PAOK against Panathinaikos

2 min read

1 July 2020 Ivan

Also the second semifinal series of the Greek championship, the first to resume in Europe after the Coronavirus pandemic, opens with a surprise result: even without all foreigners (Steven Marshall, Kay van Dijk, Bries van den Dries, Dmitriy Ilinykh…) and despite having clearly lost the first 2 sets, PAOK has in fact made a great comeback to defeat the Panathinaikos, devoid only of Saša Starovic. Led by Raptis and Cacic, Panathinaikos dominates the first two partial as expected, then the rivals finds benefit from the entry of Filipov and Boutos and drastically reduces the number of errors (only 3 in the 3 set and only 4 in the 4 set), managing to win the 3rd and the 4th sets. In the tie break the Panathinaikos gets nervous and loses the compass in attack closing the partial with -10% of efficiency in the fundamental. For Panathinaikos was not enough having scored more points, having done better on attack and on the block (21 vs. 13) to win the first game of the series.

Semifinal Game 1 – July 1
PAOK (2) — Panathinaikos (3) 3-2 (14:25, 19:25, 25:23, 25:23, 15:8)
PAOK: Terzis O, Sotiriou 16, Charalampidis 6, Armenakis 4, Efremidis 3, Gatsis 14, Stefanou (L); Konstantinidis 0, Filipov 3, Takouridis 0, Boutos 21. Coach: K. Delikostas.
Panathinaikos: Jacobsen 1, Cacic 19, Pantaleon 7, Raptis 30, Andreopoulos 10, Lucas Rangel 15, Zisis (L); Pelekoudas 3. Not entered: Mouhlias, Meliggiotis, Roussopoulos, Barbounis, Palaiologos, Sonakis (L). Coach: D. Andreopoulos.

Semifinals’ Program
• Game 1 | June 30 |
Olympiacos (1) – Foinikas Syros (4) 2-3 (22:25, 25:23, 25:20, 25:27, 16:18)
• Game 1 | July 1 |
PAOK (2) – Panathinaikos (3) 3-2 (14:25, 19:25, 25:23, 25:23, 15:8)

• Game 2 | July 2 |
Olympiacos (1) – Foinikas Syros (4) (22:25, 20:25, 19:25)
• Game 2 | July 3 |
PAOK (2) – Panathinaikos (3) 3-0 (29:27, 25:17, 25:18)

• Eventual match 3 | July 4 |
Olympiacos (1) – Foinikas Syros (4) 3-0 (25:21, 25:14, 25:22)
• Eventual match 3 | July 4 |
PAOK (2) – Panathinaikos (3) 0-3 (21:25, 18:25, 18:25)