With defense as a weapon and pluralism in attack, Olympiacos beat PAOK 27-19 and took the first step to qualify for the Handball Premier finals.

The game was effectively decided in the first quarter of the second half as the Red-Whites launched a 7-1 run to run away by eight goals.

The match: Both teams started the game nervously and both defenses dominated. It is characteristic that after 15 minutes of the game it was 3:3.

From there, the two teams scored three goals each over the next five minutes before Olympiacos escaped with three goals, led by Montoro.

PAOK tried not to let the Red-Whites get away with the goal and they managed to form the final 11-9 of the first half with Eleftheriadis.

However, early in the second 30 minutes, Olympiacos managed to find solutions in defense and ran with a 9-1 majority to take a 20-10 lead.

Olympiacos then really extended their huge lead and easily made it 1-0, with the final 27-19 sealing the effort between the two teams.

Olympiacos – PAOK 27-19

The five minutes: 2-2, 3-3, 3-3, 6-6, 9-6, 11-9 (day), 14-10, 18-10, 20-11, 23-14, 24-14, 27-19

OLYMPIA (Grammar): Papavasilis 4, Dombris 4, Montoro 4, Ostrousko 3, Bayios 2, Niokas 5, Gratzan 3, Passias 1, Koutoulogenis 1

PAOK (scandalism): 3 Eleftheriadis, 2 Nicolaidis, 1 Tsanaxidis, 3 D. Triantafyllidis, 2 Tzorginis, 1 Kokmisis, 1 Kavousanakis, 4 Ladakis, 1 Apostolou, 1 Dougias

The playoff schedule

Saturday April 1st

• Olympiacos SFP/Xyni Group – PAOK

Wednesday, April 5th

• PAOK-Olympiacos SFP/Omilos Xini
• AEK- Diomedes Argos

Weekend of April 8th to 9th

• Olympiacos SFP/Omilos Xyni – PAOK (if required)

Sunday, April 9th

• Diomedes Argos – AEK

Wednesday, April 12th

• AEK- Diomedes Argos (if required)

* The qualification for the final will be decided based on the 2 wins.

The first duel of the semi-finals of the Handball Premier Playoffs will take place in the afternoon at 6:00 p.m. in the indoor stadium of Ilioupoli between Olympiakos and PAOK (LIVE on Sportish). The two teams are aiming for the two wins that will give the ticket to the championship finals.

Olympiacos, who finished second, have home rights if the series goes to a third game while PAOK finished third. In the regular season, Olympiakos and PAOK each had one win in the matches between them. Olympiacos won 28-23 in Ilioupoli and PAOK prevailed 21-20 in Mikra.

The game will be streamed live on the official Olympiacos YouTube channel (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WsRcySgcTdE). Kinatzidis – Fotakidis will be the referees of the match and Migas – Tsakonas will be observers.

Nikos Gramatikos (Olympiakos coach): “At the beginning of the playoffs, we are ready to face a very good team like PAOK and take the first step in our homeland for the continuation of the playoffs. We will give 100% and once again we are waiting for our people to be by our side to help us achieve our goal.”

Vladislav Ostruchko (Olympiacos athlete): “After the conclusion of the regular season, our attention was fully focused endgames. Now the semi-finals begin. We need two wins, we want to get the first one at home tomorrow. We’ve been preparing for this game all week. I think it will be an interesting game where we want to do our best. And we will do that.”

Panos Gousios (PAOK trainer): “We have been preparing for this series of games for a long time. We know the depth and quality of the opponent, but we are ready to challenge our final participation despite the home disadvantage on an equal footing in the league.”

The second semi-final will take place on Wednesday (April 5) in Thessaloniki. The pair AEK – Diomedes Argos will also start their semifinals on April 5, with Union at home.

The specific program aims to promote the development of handball coaches at European level.

The HIEP project is developed in cooperation with EPSI – The European Platform for Sport Innovation, Master Group Sport, Ovidius University Costanza (Romania), Olympiakos Multisport Team, Handball Department and Italian Federation L’Orma.

The main objective of the programme, which will run for 36 months, is the spread of handball through the development of common models to increase participation in the sport, especially among young people.

At the same time, the project aims to explore best practices in the education of coaches at European and national level in both handball and other sports.

In addition, there is an international trainer course that is jointly trained at European level. There are also local activities such as coaching courses and youth activities.