Olympiacos qualified for the Greek Handball Cup Final Four for the third time in their history as they were defeated away from home Drama ’86 with 39-37 in a penalty shoot-out match (regular time 30-30, overtime 35-35). In the semifinals of the Final Four, the Reds and Whites meet AEK, who in turn take out Pylaia.

The match had all the makings of a… thriller. Excitement, passion and suspense until the end. In the first half the defense fell into the background, both sides kept scoring goals and the Dramani, led by Achillea Tosca, went into the dressing room with an 18:17 lead.

In the second half, the defense improved and the offensive lanes were blocked. In the 54th minute, the home team managed to take the lead by 29:25, with goalkeeper Lefteris Papazoglou improving his performance. Olympiacos responded with a 3-0 run and reduced to 29:28, Toskas made 30:28 for the home side but the visitors managed to level the game at 30:30 at 59:20 with goals from Kandylas and Papavasilis.

In the home team’s final attack, the referees indicated a penalty at 59:59, attributing the touch to Niokas Papageorgiou, who tried to shoot from the corner. Cena duly took the penalty, but the referees ordered a retake to show they had not kicked off the execution. Sina took over the execution again, but this time Thomas Bauer stopped him, just as he had done with Pantelis Kostakidis in injury time a few days earlier in Olympiakos’ 23-22 win over Aeropos.

As a result, the two teams were led to two five-minute overtime periods. At 66:35 Drama led by 34:32 and at 67:25 by 35:33, but Olympiacos managed to equalize by 35:35 at 69:07, which was also the result of overtime as neither team had an attack Mistakes failed both sides.

Kostas Kotanidis became the hero of Olympiacos on penalties, saving shots from Haitidis and Moraitis. Ostroutsko, Weber and Papavasilis scored for Olympiakos while Babis Dombris sealed the Reds’ victory with 37:39.

• The five minutes: 2-2, 5-6, 9-8, 11-10, 14-13, 18-17 (mch), 20-18, 22-20, 25-23, 26-24, 29-26, 30- 30 (qa), 33-32, 35-35 (par.), 37-39 (pen.)
• Drama ’86 (Valavanis): Vassiliou, Moraitis 8, Filippou, Haitidis 5, Koboglanidis, Kotsamarikoglou, Polydoros 1, Tornikidis, Toskas 10, Papazoglou, Demertzidis, Barbas, Papageorgiou 2, Zibulovits 3, Papadopoulos 5, Sina 3
• Olympic (Grammar): Kotanidis, Niokas 3, Karabourniotis 1, Papavasilis 7, Koutoulogenis, Kandylas 4, Bayios, Papadopoulos, Dombris 2, Weber 11, Pasias 2, Montoro 4, Slavoulitsa 1, Ostrusko 3, Michaelidis 1, Bauer
• referee: Patios – Tsianas. Two minutes: 4-3. Red: Zibulovic (57:29 – dangerous game). penalty: 3/3 – 8/8

AEK – AESH Pylias 35-23

In impressive fashion, AEK reached the last four of the Greek Cup for the sixth time in their history as they beat last year’s trophy winners Goal with 35-23in OAK.

Union was in control from the start, maintained a small lead and was leading 16-13 at halftime. In the second half she continued to improve her defense and it is characteristic that she conceded only four goals from 40′ to 55′ and managed to build a difference and take the win comfortably.

Madalinic was AEK’s offensive leader with 9 goals.

In the semi-finals of the Final Four, AEK meets Olympiakos, like last year in Kozani’s Final Four.

• The five minutes: 2-2, 5-4, 8-5, 11-8, 13-10, 16-13 (f), 18-14, 23-16, 27-18, 28-19, 32-20, 35- 23
• AEK (Albanian): Matskevich, Arabatzis 4, Tick, Zifkovic 3, Mandalinic 9, Nikolaidis, Almeida, Iliopoulos 2, Papadionisiou 1, Liapis 5, Arsic, Skokolic 2, Tsitobi 1, Rogulski 4, Lemos, Kederis 4
• AESH of Pylias (Ananiadis): Zafeiris 1, Manoloudis 3, Metsis, Karagiozopoulos 3, Koukmisis 3, Giannakidis, Tsortekis 1, Orfanoudakis, Batzios, Alexandridis 2, Kyriakidis 1, Athanasiadis 2, Alachatianos 2, Seirekidis 3, Antoniadis 2
• referee: Tolios-Mertinian. Two minutes: 3-2. penalty: 2/2 – 1/1

PAOK – ASE Duka 22-24

THE duke surprised the institution, defeated PAOK in the micra me 24-22 and reached the last four for the tenth time in its history. In fact, it set a record as it became the team with the most appearances in the institution’s last four, overtaking Filippos Verias and Panhellenios.

The school association is now waiting to see who his opponent will be in the semifinals, where he will emerge from the winning pair Aris Nikaia – Diomedes Argos.

Against Dikephalos from the north, ASED had a very good day with international winger Dimitris Tziras leading his team to victory with 10 goals scored.

PAOK started with a 2-0 lead, but Doukas took the lead in the 8th minute and was in charge from then on. He finished the first half with a 2-goal difference (13-15), was even ahead by 4 goals (14-18 and 17-21), and no matter how hard PAOK tried to turn back, Borodai and his teammates wouldn’t let it to reach the qualification (22-24).

• The five minutes: 3-2, 5-5, 8-8, 9-9, 11-11, 13-15 (Em.), 14-16, 16-18, 17-19, 18-20, 19-21, 22 -24
• PAOK (Panos Gousios): Gigof, Eleftheriadis 5, Tsamouridis 1, Nikolaidis 4, Papazoglou 2, Velissariou, Tzorginis 1, Apostolou, Moisilov, Tsanaxidis 4, Koukmisis 3, Kavousanakis 1, Triantafyllidis D. 1, Ladakis, Triantafyllidis An.
• Bless you, Duke (Giorgos Chalkidis): Borodai, Markatatos, Tziras 10, Payatis 3, Batis, Tsakouridis 4, Panagiotou 1, Geroulanos 1, Anastasiou, Yantsa 1, Charitonidis, Zafeirakis, Gasevics 2, Kollyris, Stefanitsis 2
• referee: Tzaferopoulos-Bettman. Two minutes: 3-5, penalty: 0/2 – 6/7

Shift to Aris Nikaia – Diomedes

The fight between Aris Nikias and Diomedes postponed due to the participation of Sofian Bezilali from Argytes in the matches of the World Cup with the national team of Algeria, which will be held in Poland and Sweden.

The results of the quarterfinals

• Mars of Nice – Diomedes postponed
• PAOK-ASE Duka 22-24
• AEK-Pylaia 35-23
• Drama 1986 – Olympiacos 37-39