Double Wins and into Round 3
News
Three of the four remaining away matches of the CEV Champions League Volley 2022 – Men took place last night, thus partially revealing the lineup for the last preliminary round of Europe’s premiere club competition.
Following a convincing win away from home, Olympiacos Piraeus returned to the Melina Merkouri sports hall confident they can get a second win against the Slovakians from Rieker UJS KOMÁRNO. And so they did, following yet another good performance confirmed by the statistics of the match: winning spikes 51 vs 43; kill blocks 8 vs 6; aces 4 vs 1.
Olympiacos star player Hermans Egleskalns did not play as he is currently nursing a minor injury.
A straight sets win for the Greeks (3-0; 25-21, 25-19, 31-29) who will now face one of Hebar Pazardzhik/Shakhtior Soligorsk in Round 3.
Dimitris Kazazis“Today my team was much focused and got the job done very well. After the result of the first match, the opponent did not seem to have the belief that they could achieve something more, unlike us who showed a lot of self-confidence despite the small problems we had. It is certainly difficult to continue our journey in this competition, but Olympiacos is a very big team with great athletes and the target in every match is to secure a victory and that is what we will continue to do.”
Head coach of Olympiacos
Nikola Mijailovic, player of Olympiacos and MVP: “I think we played a very good game in all three sets and the guys who played in the third set did perform very well too. We have made it to the next round and now we got a boost from this victory to go to a difficult match in Syros, while we wait to find out our next opponent in Europe to manage to qualify to the Champions League pool stage.”
Peter Mlynarcik, player of Rieker UJS KOMARNO: “I think that the biggest difference was in defence; moreover, we did not make enough pressure with our block and serve. Olympiacos played better than we did today. We have to practice more, to focus on our game more and we are now looking forward to our national championship and to joining the CEV Cup.”
Gabriel Chocholak, head coach of the Slovakian team: “After losing the first two sets, there was nothing more at stake – and I decided to use some players from the bench. I am satisfied with their performance. In the first set, we made more mistakes than Olympiacos, so we lost it. The second one was easy for the opponent. Maybe we were not ready for this situation from a mental standpoint and this was a clear and well-deserved win for Olympiacos. We see our effort until now as a good experience for our team and now we are looking forward to the CEV Cup.”
Elsewhere, Sport Lisboa e Benfica travelled to Finland and recorded a second win against Ford Levoranta Sastamala (1-3; 27-25, 20-25, 21-25, 14-25), a match in which Levoranta’s Alberto Cavasin was the top scorer.
In Round 3, Benfica will be facing the Czechs from ČEZ Karlovarsko, who managed to ensure their place in the next round by seeing off Mladost Zagreb in a 5 – set thriller (3-2; 18-25, 18-25, 25-19, 27-25, 15-9) at the Sport Hall for Indoor Games in Karlovy Vary.
With one remaining spot in Round 3 still up for grabs, Shakhtior Soligorsk will host Hebar Pazardzhik tonight at the Palace of Sport "Uruchje" in Minsk (BLR) and will be looking to consolidate on a hard fought 3-2 victory away from home.
