Good results for Greek teams in Europe

Olympiakos caused a major upset in the 2009/2010 CEV Indesit Champions League as the Greek volleyball champions beat Zenit KAZAN over the two ties.

Though the Russian side won the second match 3:2 (21-25, 25-20, 25-19, 27-29, 15-8) in Russia, Olympiakos’ stunning 3:1 win in the first match gave them the Playoff Six spot. Ivan Miljkovic was MVP, scoring 32 points and was practically unstoppable the Russian blockers.

Reds’ head coach Ioannis Kalmazidis said after the game, “I want to thank my players for their great game. Our performance was excellent.”

Zenit Kazan’s head coach Vladimir Alekno added: “Olympiakos’ performance didn’t surprise us. The Greek team has a world class player in its roster, Ivan Miljkovic, and with the support of his teammates, they form a very tough team.”

The Reds’ also had two players honoured before the first match, as Ivan Miljkovic and Georgios Stefanou were acknowledged as the Best Scorer and the Best Receiver of the League Round respectively.

Ivan Miljkovic – who had scored a total of 125 points in 6 games (25 sets) – said, “If the numbers say I am the best scorer it is good. This happened in the League Round and the best is that we qualified for the Playoffs. I hope we can go even further in this competition.”

Libero Georgios Stefanou (52,80% of excellent receptions and 43,20% of efficiency), said it was a culmination of training, “It is a great privilege to be awarded. It is the recognition for the hard work and training. The difficulty is not to reach the top but to stay at the top.”

Olympiakos will now face Dinamo Moscow in the next round, with the first leg scheduled for the first week of March in Greece and the second in Russia a week later. Dinamo had dumped Panathinaikos to progress to the Playoff Six round.

Panathinaikos lost again to Dinamo Moscow, this time 3-2 in Athens on Thursday (25-18, 14-25, 27-25, 32-34, 12-15), having lost 3-0 in Russia in the first leg.

The Panathinaikos girls, in contrast, opened their Quarter Finals in the 2009/2010 GM Capital Challenge Cup against Belgium’s Asterix Kieldrecht in winning circumstances.
The Greek girls won the demanding match (3:2, 14-25, 26-24, 25-15, 13-25, 15-11) despite the Belgians having enjoyed a better start.

Serbian girls Brizitka Molnar and Sanja Tomasevic were amongst the best for the Greek side along with Romanian-born Roxana Ntoumitreskou.

Tomasevic said, “It was a match full of passion and energy. We have to go to Belgium very motivated and in my opinion we can make it. Asterix is a good team with young girls. We have another opportunity to qualify for the second consecutive year to the finals of this competition.”

Asterix coach Gert Vande Broek was positive despite the loss: “We played really well for two sets. I am not disappointed. I know that my team has many young players and with these matches my girls are getting more and more maturity. Panathinaikos has more experienced players. It is a good team and I think that we don’t have a huge advantage for the return match even though we will play at home. We are a young team with ups and downs, so we will have to fight.”