Volleyball League Cup: Olympiacos, Finikas and Milonas are waiting for PAOK or Panathinaikos in the semifinals

Olympiacos beat me 3-0 put him PDO Kifissiasecuring his place in the semi-finals League Cup “Nikos Samaras”.. Phoenix awaits him there with the first semi-final in Syros and the rematch in Rentis.

Olympiakos dominance was fair but by no means easy as Kifisia, playing free and with Okosanovic as the protagonist, led 21-18 and 24-22 but failed to make the 0-1 set. Olympiakos, with tremendous attacking and serving power, Stern and Hidalgo managed the turnaround to win the first set 28-26. Stern led Olympiakos with 13/16 attacks made, while Okonsanovich was Kifissia’s top scorer with 11 points.

The “start” for Kifissia in the first set was impressive, because with a strong block and counterballs from Okosanovic they led 5:1. Olympiacos increased their performance and equalized with attacks from Stern and a mistake from Chevers to make it 7-7.

Then the two teams were effective on the away side, drawing 11-11 together. In the best part of the set Olympiakos led 12-11 with an attack from Payenk, but later in the set Kifisia took back the reins 16-14 with aces from Ricardo and Stivachti. The “Blue-Whites” continued to press better and got a three-point “air” 18-15 through a skillful placement of the Brazilian winger. The ‘Red-Whites’ attempted to come back to claim the set but suffered multiple serve errors. Kifissia led 21-17 after a superb save from Stivachtis and against Okosanovic. Olympiacos came close to making it 21-20 with Hidalgo at 9 yards. Kifissia achieved a double bowl set 24-22 with Okosanovic but Olympiacos drew 24-24. The 3rd chance at 25-24 was also missed by the visitors, whereupon Olympiacos turned the situation against them and Payenk’s attack won the set 28-26.

In the 2nd set, Olympiacos started with “gas pressed” and took the lead with pressure on the serve with 8:2. Kifisia reacted and gnawed at the difference, reducing it to 10-6 with a Chevers attack. It was the Athens team’s final reaction as Olympiacos clinched the difference to 16-7 with consecutive points, finally closing the set with an ace from Petsias at 25-15, simultaneously sealing qualification for the next stage institution.

In the 3rd set of the game, the two coaches made many changes. Olympiacos, with Chandrino’s serve, turned the 3-3 into a 9-3 and gave the hosts a clear lead. Kifisia “nibbled” the difference to 12-9 with a block from Filippakopoulos and an attack from Okosanovich, while in the development of the set it got even closer to 13-11 with a block won by Papadopoulos. Olympiacos spearheaded Chandrinos again to +4 (19-15) but Kifisia with Oikonomopoulos on serve was within breathing distance of 21-20. With a block from Linardos, Olympiacos reached a triple-match bowl 24-21, Kifisia ‘lived’ twice, but on the 3rd opportunity Chandrinos made it 25-23 with a block-out won.

Milonas in the semifinals

His qualification for the semi-finals for the second straight year in the institution’s history was accepted Milonas. After winning 3-0 in the first quarter-finals in Nea Smyrni, Sakis Psarra’s side wanted two sets to qualify. However, in Polichni tonight he lost 2-1 sets to the fighter Pegasus but he managed to take the 4th set and qualify and also ended up taking the match 3-2 Set with a great protagonist, Alexandros Nanopoulos, who played diagonally instead of Yordanov and scored 27 points.

Milos took a 1-0 set lead and showed he was in control of the game and qualifying, but Pegasos with high receiving and attacking rates and protagonist Apostolos Armenakis, reminiscing about the old days and spinning diagonally, managed to do it Turn game and lead 2 – 1 set. Armenakis scored 30 points for Pegasus, partially surprising Milos.

Everything was decided in the 4th set. There, with two blocks from Brian and errors from the hosts, Milo escaped 7-3 and never lost a secure lead. Even when Pegasos failed 17:16 against Mavrovouniotis, Milo found solutions with the very good Nanopoulos, who made two crucial blocks together with Her to open the gap back to +4 (20:16). Then Brian and Molina did the dirty work and the set ended 25-22 for Milos, who secured qualification with the 2-2 set.

Pegasos had no motivation for more and Milos, with better psychology and energy, built a 7-4 difference on Stratos’ serve. Pegasus followed, but two errors from Terzoglou and a finish from Theodosis ended the match 15-11 for the 3-2 set.

Second 3:0 for Finikas

THE Palm tree ONEX was the first team to reach the semi-finals in time and, like in the 2020-21 season, will face Olympiakos there. THE sleight of hand struggled without De Pra (cross) and Gladstone (middle) but was still competitive in the first set where he took a 19-15 lead.

18-year-old Vassilis Bozidis, who started as a winger, played diagonally in place of De Pra and 23-year-old center Kostas Tsioutsiouludis replaced Gladstone.

Phoenix’s leader and first scorer was Djuric with 18 points. In the first two sets he played as a central player and switched to his favorite position on the diagonal in the 3rd set. Of the 18 points, 6 come from blocks.

Finikas fell behind in the 1st set at 15:19 and with a sustained counterattack thanks to Galiotos’ serve, he made a 5-0 run to make it 19:19, while at 21:21 Djuric had two blocks and Genov’s error to make it 24:21 for the Syrians led . Kasambalis and Genov reduced (24-23) and redemption for Phoenix came from Fromm with a blockout against Algoul for 25-23 and the 1-0 set.

With the air at 1-0, Phoenix wanted another set to secure qualification and managed it more comfortably. An ace from Fromm made it 5-3, while the lead gradually widened to 17-10 with Michalovic’s first fiddle. The set ended 25-16.

With qualification secured, Kazazis gave time to all his players. With the exception of Tzourits, who flipped diagonally, Galiotos, Papadopoulos, Roumeliotakis, Charalambidis, Manolakis, Mantzios and Sonakis brought Foinikas to conquer the 3rd set 25-16 and the celebratory win qualifier with 3-0 sets.

The last group of semifinals results from the second game between Panathinaikos and PAOK. The “Cloverleaf” had weathered the commotion to win 3-2 sets and the next game is on Wednesday, January 4th at the PAOK Sports Arena.

The game statistics

Olympiacos – Kifisia 3-0

• Olympiakos’ points come from 7 aces, 45 attacks, 6 blocks and 20 enemy errors and Kifisia’s points come from 4 aces, 34 attacks, 5 blocks and 21 enemy errors
• The sentences: 3-0 (28:26, 25:15, 25:23) in 79′
• OLYMPIC (Alberto Giuliani): Pagenk 5 (3/4 ref., 2 blocks), Stern 13 (13/16 ref.), Papagelopoulos 7 (6/6 ref., 1 block), Koumendakis 6 (6/15 ref., 33% dec – 28% excellent), Travitsa 1 (1 ace), Hidalgo 11 (8/15ff, 2 aces, 1 block, 67% con – 22% excellent) / Tziavras (l, 64% con – 64% excellent), Chandrinos 9 (6/9 ref, 3 aces, 78% sub – 44% excellent), Zupani 1 (1/5 ref), Dalakouras 2 (1/1 ref, 1 block) , Petsias 1 (1 ace), Linardos 2 (1/1 f., 1 block)
• KIFISIA (Kostas Christofidelis): Okosanovich 11 (9/22 ff., 2 blocks), Stivachtis 2 (1 ace, 1 block), Rego 7 (6/11 ff., 1 ace, 45% sub. – 45% excellent), Spiliotis 3 (3/5 ref.), Moreira 4 (3/6 ref., 1 block), Chavers 9 (9/17 ref., 62% sub. – 46% excellent) / Kontostathis (l, 31% sub. – 23% excellent), Kosmas (l, 57% SUB. – 43% excellent), Roussopoulos, Papadopoulos 4 (3/6 ff., 1 ace, 25% SUB. – 25% excellent), Filippakopoulos 3 (1/1 ff., 1 ace, 1 block), Economopoulos

Pegasos-Milos 3-0

• The sentences: 2-3 (17-25, 31-29, 25-19, 22-25, 11-15) in 119′
• *Pegasus Polichnis’ points come from 6 aces, 53 attacks, 15 blocks and 32 enemy errors and Milos’ points come from 4 aces, 64 attacks, 13 blocks and 32 enemy errors
• PEGASUS (Heraklis Theodorou): Komitoudis 4 (4 blocks), Bareto 10 (10/21 ff., 50% substantive – 32% excellent), Mavrovouniotis 11 (7/23 ff., 1 ace, 3 blocks, 64% substantive – 33% excellent), Milis 6 (6/10 ff.), Armenakis 30 (22/39 ff., 1 ace, 7 blocks), Kanellos 3 (2/7 ff., 1 ace) / Bourakis (l, 79 % sub. – 47% excellent), Tsirakis (l, 75% sub. – 75% excellent), Palaiohorinos, Grammenoudis, Sakoglou 1 (1/5 ff.), Pavlidis 1 (1/1 ff.), Kesesidis 8 ( 4/7 ff., 3 aces, 1 block), Terzoglou (67% sub – 33% excellent)
• MILON (Sakis Psarras): Theodosis 6 (6/11 ref), Brian 15 (11/15 ref, 4 blocks), Nanopoulos 27 (21/36 ref, 2 aces, 4 blocks, 71% sub – 43% excellent), Molina 19 (16/31ff., 1 ace, 2 blocks, 62% pass – 41% excellent), Efraimidis 5 (4/13ff., 1 block, 67% pass – 33% excellent), hand 4 (2/2 f., 2 blocks) / Chandrinos (l, 74% sub. – 32% excellent), Semitekolos (l), Kouvaras 1 (1/1 f.), Dimitoulis, Andreadis 1 (1/3 ff. ), Stratos 3 (2/9 ff., 1 ace, 77% inferior – 46% excellent)

Finikas – Athlos 3-0

• The sentences: 3-0 (25:23, 25:16, 25:16) in 72′
• Phoenix ONEX’s points come from 7 aces, 42 attacks, 8 blocks and 18 errors and Athlos Orestiada’s points come from 1 ace, 32 attacks, 5 blocks and 17 errors
• PHOENIX UNITED (Dimitris Kazazis): Michalovics 11 (11/20 ref.), Papalexiou 4 (4/5 ref.), Yerezuelo 2 (1/3 ref., 1 block), Klingenberg (0/2 ref., 86% ref. – 71% excellent), Djuric 18 (9/14 ff., 3 aces, 6 blocks), Fromm 6 (5/15 ff., 1 ace, 69% sub. – 46% excellent) / Konstantinidis (l, 84% sub. – 58% excellent), Sonakis (l), Charalambidis 5 (4/4 ref., 1 block), Mantzios, Galiotos 2 (2 aces), Roumeliotakis 6 (6/6 ref., 75% sub. – 75 % excellent), Manolakis, Papadopoulos 3 (2/2 eff, 1 ace, 38% sub – 38% excellent)
• PERFOMANCE (Ilias Kreuzis): Tsioutsiuloudis 7 (6/14 ref, 1 block), Bozidis 7 (6/19 ref, 1 block), Kasampalis 3 (1/1 ref, 1 ace, 1 block), Algul 3 ( 2/3 ff., 1 block), Rizopoulos 8 (8/25 ff., 46% SUB. – 38% excellent), Genoff 10 (9/24 ff., 1 block, 64% SUB. – 36% excellent) / Veloudis (l, 100% sub. – 78% excellent), Diamantidis (l, 55% sub. – 27% excellent), Hatzimarinakis

The couples of the semifinals

• Milos – PAOK or Panathinaikos
• Olympiacos – Finikas