After the defeat of the premiere against host Germany, the Greek national team reacted and defeated Soudia 3-1 in their 2nd competitive group stage at the 2023 Women’s Euro Volleyball Championship.

The match

The start of the international match was not good at all with Sweden leading 3-0 and 6-2, but Anthoulis made the switch, served and went out 8-6. Bella Haak stopped the streak and with the second Swedish ace the score went up to 8-10, staying -2 until the score was 11-13 where we got a streak of 5 with Anthoulis’ block, attack and Konstantinidou’s serve -0 scored (16-13).

But again we couldn’t keep the difference as Haak’s serves brought the score to 17:17 and from there the two teams went point by point until the score was 23:23. Strantzali gave Haak’s serve a terrible reception, Anthoulis finished the attack and in the next phase we ‘broke’ their attack and Nikologianni finished the game with 25:23 and our first set in euro volleyball.

Unfortunately, we didn’t start well in the second set either, because 4:4 became 4:8 and Sweden made several mistakes, so it remained 5:11. We were able to reduce to 9-12 and 12-14 and missed the first big chance there (out against Anthoulis’ ball). The second game was lost a little later (15:17 Martha’s opponent was out again), with Sweden getting away with 15:19 and easily 1:1.

The thriller element returned in the third set as the Greece internationals gave us back-to-back…heart attacks in the final. Sweden took a 4-6 lead with an ace from Haak, tied 8-8 and 12-12 (from 10-12) and went 15-14 with an ace from Nikologiannis. Greece reached +2 (18-15) with an individual block from Strantzalis on Haak and a counterattack from the captain to keep that lead to 22-19.

Haak reduced the point with an ace (22-21), Anthoulis capitalized on the change (23-21) and in the next stage she lost to an attack after the ball slipped into Konstantinidou’s hands. Instead of 24-21 it was 23-24 (Nikologiannis out, against Haak). Nicologianni nullified the set ball but gave a second, losing her serve for Wasserfaller to mimic her (25-25). In the next phase, Kalandatze’s good serve led to Lazic’s false attack and Nikologianni’s amazing defense put Strandzalis 27-25, 2-1 in our favour!!!

But here too we went sluggishly into the fourth set, Sweden led 0:3 and lost a counterattack, but we caught them immediately (Strandzali-Ass 4:4) and took a 9:8 lead through an out from Haak, who was understandably tired and at 11-11, the score was 13-11 with Lambrousi blocking the Swede diagonally while her own serve made the new error at 15-12.

The game appeared to be over when the score was 18016 22-16 after Sweden lost and took a breather from the referee’s error (they gave a goal at a stage where we had a counterattack, Sweden won the duel ) and at 23-18 it was 23-21 (Nikologiannis out). Anthoulis brought the triple match point, Lazic wiped out the first and sent Haak to serve. Strandzali held the reception and Anthoulis completed a terribly difficult attack to make it 25-22 and caused wild cheers from the entire Greek team.

The sentences: 23-25, 25-19, 25-27, 22-25 in 123′

*Sweden’s points came from 5 aces, 56 attacks, 6 blocks and 28 errors and Greece’s points came from 4 aces, 60 attacks, 4 blocks and 28 errors.

SWEDEN (Lauri Hakala): Anderson L. 1 (1/5 ref.), Wasserfaller 5 (4/11 ref., 1 ace), Haak I. 31 (26/64 ref., 2 aces, 3 blocks), Lazic A .19 (17/32 ref, 1 ace, 1 block, 61% sub – 30% excellent), Julevik 3 (1 ace, 2 blocks), Haak A. 8 (8/21ff, 45% sub. – 24% excellent) / Brink (l, 47% sub – 33% excellent), Anderson E. (l), Arstad, Lazic R., Gustafsson.

GREECE (Yunous Otsal): Anthoulis 25 (24/49 ref, 1 ace), Todai 1 (1/3 ref), Nikologiannis 11 (9/30 ref, 1 ace, 1 block, 39% sub – 17% excellent), Kalandatze 5 (5/8 ref.), Konstantinidou 4 (2/2 ref., 1 ace, 1 block), Strandzali 18 (16/34 ref., 1 ace, 1 block, 39% ref. – 18 % excellent) / Artakianou (l, 53% sub. – 41% excellent), Lamprousi 3 (2/3 ref., 1 block), Terzoglou 1 (1/2 ref.), Baka, Xanthopoulou.

The program of the 3rd group

Thursday 17 August

Greece-Germany 0-3 (19-25, 21-25, 27-29)

Friday 18 August

Turkey 3-0 Sweden (25:22, 25:18, 25:13)

Azerbaijan 3-0 Czech Republic (25:21, 25:10, 25:15)

Saturday August 19th

Sweden-Greece 1-3 (23-25, 25-19, 25-27, 22-25)

21:00, Azerbaijan-Germany

Sunday 20 August

18:00 (ERT-3), Greece-Czech Republic

21:00, Türkiye-Azerbaijan

Monday 21 August

18:00, Czech Republic-Türkiye

21:00, Germany-Sweden

Tuesday, August 22nd

18:00 (ERT-3), Azerbaijan-Greece

21:00, Germany-Czech Republic

Wednesday 23 August

18:00 (ERT-3), Greece-Türkiye

21:00, Sweden-Azerbaijan

Thursday, August 24th

18:00, Czech Republic-Sweden

21:00, Türkiye-Germany

Group C rankings

1. Azerbaijan 1 win-0-loss, 3 points, 3-0 sets, 75-46 points
2. Turkey 1 win-0-loss, 3 points, 3-0 sets, 75-53 points
3. Germany 1 win-0-loss, 3 points, 3-0 sets, 79-67 points
4. Greece 1 win-1 loss, 3 points, 3-4 sets, 163-174 points
5. Sweden 0 wins-2 losses, 0 points, 1-6 sets, 148-171 points
6. Czech Republic 0 wins-1 losses, 0 points, 0-3 sets, 46-75 points

Source: EOPE