Greece will have to overcome Finland, Latvia and Great Britain or Azerbaijan to qualify to the next European volleyball Championships.

The draw for the qualifying pools for the 2011 tournament was held on Saturday in Luxembourg and was rather kind to Greece.

The national team, that reached the second stage of the finals in the 2009 version of the tournament, will practically need to fend off the challenge of Finland, a strong and ever-improving side, in order to win the group and qualify directly to the 2011 finals.

If Greece finish second, they will have to negotiate a home-and-away play-off with the second team from the group consisting of fallen giants Italy, as well as Turkey, Belarus and one of Moldova and Romania.

The finals will be played on September 9-18, 2011 in Austria and the Czech Republic.

The women’s draw has pitted Greece with Bulgaria, Finland and Portugal.

In Greek news, Panellinios and EA Patras won their midweek fixtures. Newly-promoted Panellinios scored their first win of the season defeating visiting Phinikas Syrou 3-1 at home in Kypseli.

Phinikas, last season’s surprise package, took the first set 26-24, but Panellinios fought back and won the game with a rather easy dominance in the other three sets (25-19, 25-18, 25-16).

Ambitious EA Patras dropped a point at home against a spirited Lamia.

The hosts took the first couple of sets 25-22 and 25-19, but Lamia came back to equalise 2-2 (25-20, 26-24).

The Patras side then made their experience tell in the tie-break, winning it 15-11 and the match 3-2 for their first win of the season.

Thessaloniki clubs are dominating the start of the volleyball league, with Iraklis, PAOK and Aris seemingly unstoppable after the first rounds of the league.

Last Friday Aris brought about volleyball champion Olympiakos’s second loss in as many league games.

Led by former Olympiakos player Nikos Roumeliotis, Aris won 3-2 (23-25, 25-21, 22-25, 25-22, 15-13) on Friday after coming from 2-1 down.

On Saturday league leader Iraklis, victor of Olympiakos a week earlier, had no problems against Panellinios, winning 3-0 (25-23, 25-14, 25-19) at home.

A day later AEK scored their first win of the season defeating Kifissia 3-1 away (25-16, 23-25, 25-20, 25-16).

Yet the upset of the week came late on Monday when PAOK defeated Panathinaikos 3-2 in Athens (25-22, 25-21, 21-25, 19-25, 18-16).

However attention was focused on events outside the court. Some 150 fans of Panathinaikos and Olympiakos clashed at Pangrati before the match at Mets, the first ever home game for Panathinaikos at that court.

Reports suggest there were dozens of cars with smashed windows and police used tear gas, while worries are growing ahead of the Panathinaikos vs Olympiakos game on October 30 at the same court.