Greece suffered a 3-2 set defeat against hosts Israel in detail in the premiere of Group 4, which will be played in Tel Aviv.

Greece started the game badly with several mistakes, gradually improved their performance and even took the lead in points. With the strength of the home team, Israel led the game to the tie-break.

The national team almost started the tournament on the right foot, leading 13-11 in the tiebreak, but Israel fought back. However, the game ended in a very… strange stage when Alexander Raptis fit into the antenna, but the second referee, Vlatko Ristovski from Skopje, had a different opinion. The players and staff were furious with this decision, but it was not changed and the game ended 13:15 in favor of the Israelis.

The match

Dante Bonifante started with Marcos Galiotos in passing, Dimitris Mouchlias diagonally, Giorgos Petraeas and Dimitris Tzourits in the centre, Raphael Koumendakis with Alexandros Raptis and Menelaus Kokkinakis on the wings.

Greece’s first point came from Raphael Koumendakis, but it was Israel who got off to the best start, taking advantage of our slow start. Our first elimination was 3-7 to the Israelis, with Dante Bonifande trying to wake up his players. The home side formed a solid block and the Greek internationals struggled to deflect attacks. George Petraeus’ serve made it 8:11 (with an ace) at 5:11, but the difficulty of completing the stages remained as Israel were almost unerring in counterattacking. A… penalty from Dimitris Djuric reduced the lead to 17-21, but again Israel found the solution and with back-to-back blocks it was 17-25.

In the second set, Thanasis Protopsaltis entered the field instead of Alexandros Raptis. Israel made it difficult for Greece again, leading by +3 (14-17) after half the set. Dimitris Mouchlias slowly picked up speed and equalized with an attack on the net to 18:18. Protopsaltis gave our national team the lead (19-18) but Israel was the one who had the first set of balls after Djuric’s serve failed (23-24). Dante Bonifande’s players had the edge and at the score of 27-27, Thanasis protopsaltis snapped into action and made two impressive blocks to give Greece the set, 29-27.

Our national team also caused a surprise in the third set because they were chasing the score early on. An outside attack by Protopsaltis gave Israel a +4 (8-12) lead, with Voulkidis playing the game. The match ended shortly thereafter on a point (15-16). Mouchlias made the score 16-18 and at that point Bonifande traded the match to Raptis instead of Koumendakis. Israel maintained a two-point lead to a score of 19-21, and after the Greek team’s elimination, Protopsaltis took the serve and turned the game around. With an attack by Raptis on the counterattack, Greece took the lead (22-21), Bonifande passed Linardos instead of Galiotos to increase the national team’s block and together with Raptis he built … a wall for the 25:21 and the 2:1 sentence.

Unlike the previous two sets, Greece failed to surprise in the fourth set. Israel pressed from the nine-yard line and after two poor receptions by our national team in a row, the score was 17-22. Protopsaltis cut the score to 19-23, but Israel made it to the bowl set with five chances to level the game. Greece wiped out both games with an attack from Djuric and an ace from Protopsaltis, but after Israel’s time-out the international winger equalized to make it 25-21.

There we took the lead for the first time through Rapti’s ace (5-6) and through Djuric’s block we came up to 7-9. After Stein’s time-out, Israel responded with Hersko’s block against Protopsaltis to make it 9-9, but Greece made it 11-13 with two attacks from Raptis. But those were our last points too: David equalized the game at 13:13, Hersko made it 14:13, and then the referees ruled out Rapti’s pass and didn’t change their decision, despite everyone’s strong protests against the Greek one Mission.

Fluctuation:

1st set: 4-8, 10-16, 15-21, 17-25

2nd set: 8-7, 13-16, 21-19, 29-27

3rd set: 5-8, 14-16, 19-21, 25-21

4th set: 5-8, 12-16, 17-21, 21-25

5th set: 4-5, 10-9, 11-12, 13-15

*Greece’s points came from 5 aces, 56 attacks, 12 blocks and 33 errors and Israel’s points came from 2 aces, 67 attacks, 12 blocks and 32 errors.

Sets: 2-3 (17-25, 29-27, 25-21, 21-25, 13-15) in 155′

HELLAS (Dante Bonifante): Petraeus 2 (1/3 ref, 1 ace), Koumendakis 6 (5/19 ref, 1 ace, 67% sub – 53% excellent), Mouchlias 17 (17/36 mins), Galiotos 1 (0/2 ref, 1 block), Raptis 13 (10/20 ref, 1 ace, 2 blocks, 42% sub – 21% excellent), Djuric 16 (12/20 ref, 1 ace, 3 blocks) / Kokkinakis (l, 62% sub – 44% excellent), Chandrinos (l), Voulkidis 5 (3/5 v., 2 blocks), Linardos, protopsaltis 12 (8/23 v., 1 ace, 3 blocks, 64% to 59% excellent.

ISRAEL (Itamar Stein): Katzenlsson 1 (0/2 ref, 1 block), Hersko 24 (20/37 ref, 3 aces, 1 block, 47% sub-25% excellent), Glodrin 13 (13/29 ref . ., 52% under 26% excellent), Genis 5 (3/6 Fr., 2 blocks), David 28 (26/49 Fr., 2 blocks), Sokolov 10 (5/8 Fr., 5 blocks) / Roitman (l, 73% to 64% excellent), Ariel, Haver, Rura

D group

Tuesday, August 29th

Israel-Greece 3-2 (25-17, 27-29, 21-25, 25-21, 15-13)

Wednesday 30 August

• 17:00, Türkiye-France
• 20:00, Romania-Portugal

Thursday 31 August

• 17:00, France-Portugal
• 20:00, Romania-Israel

Friday September 1st

• 16:00, Romania-Türkiye
• 19:00, Portugal-Greece

Saturday September 2nd

• 17:30, Türkiye-Greece
• 20:30, Israel-France

Sunday September 3rd

• 17:00, Greece-Romania
• 20:00, Israel-Portugal

Monday, September 4th

• 17:00, France-Romania
• 20:00, Portugal-Türkiye

Tuesday, September 5th

• 17:00, Greece-France
• 20:00, Türkiye-Israel