The men’s national volleyball team continues to impress in European Championship qualifiers after beating Cyprus 3-0 in a set in Nicosia and winning 4/4.

The blue and white got what they wanted from the match, namely the clear three points and without losing a set. All this four days before the decisive game against Croatia in Osijek, which will determine the first place in the group.

As for today’s game (terrible performance by Thodoris Voulkidis who was top scorer) basically all the money was in the first set where the Greek team almost fell victim to a big upset.

The opening 4-4 ​​draw turned into a 4-9, with the Cypriots reducing to 9-12, but the Greeks again came away 10-17 and were in full control of the game.

From that point onwards the Cypriots’ serve caused some problems with the score at 13:17 and at 19:22 it was an ebb and flow with Cyprus approaching the point (21:22) and through a block by Stukarevic and evened out dating Giumaka.

But he evened it out to 23-23 to follow a big period where we pulled out some terrible defenses and went blue with Siapani’s mistakes to end the set with Giumaka’s ace.

In the next two sets, the Greek team showed more patience, managed the big differences very correctly and confidently reached the 3:0 in the final.

Cyprus – Greece 0-3

The sentences: 23-25, 17-25, 20-25 in 82 minutes.

*Cyprus points come from 1 ace, 36 attacks, 3 blocks, 20 enemy errors and Greece points come from 7 aces, 37 attacks, 7 blocks, 24 enemy errors.

CYPRUS (Stellios Massias): Strukarevic 11 (9/12 ref., 2 blocks), Haridimou 9 (9/24 ref.), Mavrommatis 2 (1/1 ref., 1 block), Nikolaou 1 (1/4 ref.), Siapanis 10 (9 /26 ff., 1 ace, 68% inferior – 59% excellent), Michael 7 (7/16 ff., 50% inferior – 36% excellent) / Antoniou (l, 56% inferior – 44% excellent), Ioannou ( l), Chrysostomou, Iakovou.

GREECE (Dante Bonifande): Petreas 6 (4/6 ref, 2 blocks), Tzioumakas 10 (8/17, 2 aces), Koumendakis 5 (4/10 ref, 1 ace, 50% sub-38% excellent), Voulkidis 15 (11 /17th class, 1 ace, 3 blocks), galiotos, protopsaltis 2 (1/10th class, 1 block, 50% sub.-17% excellent) / Chandrinos No. (l, 75% sub.-45% excellent ), Papalexiou 4 (4/4 ref), Mouchlias 3 (2/4 ref, 1 ace), Hakas 6 (3/7 ref, 2 aces, 1 block). , 50% under 21% excellent).

The complete program of the 5th qualifying group (Greek time)

Wednesday 03.08

• Norway 2-3 Greece (25:19, 27:25, 23:25, 21:25, 09:15)
• Croatia 3-0 Cyprus (25:20, 25:16, 25:13)

Saturday 06.08

• Cyprus 3-0 Norway (25:19, 27:25, 25:21)

Sunday 07.08

• Greece 3-0 Croatia (25:12, 25:23, 25:15)

Wednesday 10.08

• Croatia 3-0 Norway (25:21, 25:18, 25:19)
• Greece 3-0 Cyprus (25:19, 25:19, 25:19)

Saturday 08/13

• Cyprus 0-3 Greece (23:25, 17:25, 20:25)

Sunday 08/14

• Volda, 5 p.m.: Norway – Croatia

Wednesday 08/17

• Volda, 7 p.m.: Norway – Cyprus
• Osijek, 8:00 p.m.: Croatia – Greece

Saturday 20.08

• Nicosia, 8 p.m.: Cyprus – Croatia

Sunday 08/21

• DAK Glyfada, 20:30: Greece – Norway

grading

1. Greece 4 wins – 0 losses, 11 points, 12:2 sets, 259–212 points
2. Croatia 2 win-1 loss, 6 points, 6-3 sets, 200-182 points
3. Cyprus 1 win 3 losses, 3 points, 3-6 sets, 183-215 points
4. Norway 0 win-3 losses, 1 point, 2-9 sets, 228-261 points

*From the 7 qualification groups of the European Championship 2023, the first 7 and the best 5 runners-up qualify.

In the event of a tie between the teams, the criteria for scoring are in the following order:

1) victories
2) grades
3) Set factor
4) points coefficient
5) results in the games between them