Targoviste 3-2 Olympiakos: Lost in tie-break for Red-Whites chasing qualification

Olympiacos were eliminated in the tie-break in Romania but need a 3-0 or 3-1 win in next week’s second leg (Thursday 3/2, 7.30pm CET) to secure a ticket to the semi-finals.

The red and white conceded their 1-0 Targovistewith Genitsaridis, Tsitsigiannis (they came on as substitutes in the second set and continued as a main player) but they couldn’t get the win.

In the first set they lost 14-8 to bring it down to 14-13 with Genitsaridis on serve and went 16-17 with Bouterez’ out. At 19-18, however, consecutive offensive errors brought the score to 24-18 to make it 1-0.

The Red-Whites started the second set impressively as they led 1-4, 3-7 and reached 7-14 to lose 10-15 to Koumboura with back problems. There Targoviste ran a 5-0 run for 15:15 and led 11:4 by 21:19 in individual results. Sala’s attack and Jenitsaridis’ ace tied the game, two more attacks from Sala took it to 21:23 and Emmanouilidou finished the set at 23:25.

In the third set Olympiacos might not have gotten a point from a block but they only made 5 errors and at 14-12 they were 14-15 with an ace from Salas. At 16-16 came the breakout of the Reds and Whites, who ran a 0-5 series for 16-21 and easily reached 1-2.

The sequel was different as Targoviste threw Zadorona, Orlandea, Matei into the fray, changed attacking picture and easily got to 2-2. The Red-Whites lost 8-4 and 16-8, coming close to 17-14 but not completing the reversal.

Olympiacos found themselves chasing the result early and in the tie-break (4-2, 9-5) when Miceli Winters threw in diagonally and took over immediately. In the next phase, the referees first gave the point to Olympiakos, then they gave a replay of the phase. The Greek team stayed in the game until 10-7, which after a block from Salas and an out from Kuvanis made it 13-7 to end the set 15-9.

• The sentences: 3-2 (25-19, 23-25, 18-25, 25-18, 15-09) in 132′
• *Targoviste’s points come from 4 aces, 57 attacks, 16 blocks and 29 errors and Olympiacos’ points come from 5 aces, 55 attacks, 12 blocks and 24 errors
• NEGOTIATE (Giovanni Caprara): Bouterez 3 (3/20 Ref, 64% Sub – 45% Excellent), Todorova 12 (7/12 Ref, 5 Blocks), Van De Veer 4 (2/4 Ref, 1 Ass , 1 block), Bielica 16 (13/36 ref., 1 ace, 2 blocks), Mirosavlevic 19 (17/44 ref., 2 blocks, 45% sub. – 18% excellent), Ionescu 9 (3/9 ref ., 1 ace, 5 blocks0 / Bozicevic (l, 64% sub – 36% excellent), Zadoronai 8 (6/15 ref., 1 ace, 1 block), Orlandea 1 (1/1 ref.), Kalota , Matei 5 (5/14 ff., 62% inferior – 25% excellent)
• OLYMPIC (Lorenzo Miceli): Emmanouilidou 9 (5/16 ref., 4 blocks), Winters 8 (7/15 ref., 1 ace, 38% sub. – 31% excellent), Lambrousi 3 (0/5 ref., 3 block), Salas 21 (18/51ff, 1 ace, 2 blocks, 45% sub – 15% excellent), Koumboura 7 (5/15ff, 1 ace, 1 block), Carraro 2 (1/4 ref., 1 ace) / Kosmas (l., 32% sub. – 22% excellent), Antonakaki (l., 67% sub. – 67% excellent), Giota, Totai, Tsitsigianni 9 (8/25 ref., 1 block), Christodoulou, Genitsaridis 11 (10/30 ff., 1 ace, 29% sub. – 17% excellent), Zafiriou 2 (1/1 ff., 1 block)