The Panathinaikos men’s team celebrated reaching the semi-finals of the Challenge Cup after a tense match. The Greens beat the Dutchman Orion in the golden set and thus managed to get a ticket, because during the normal duration of the match (they were defeated 0:3), due to injuries, the team that emerged victorious in the Netherlands with a score of 3- 1.

Today, Olympiacos will also aim to reach the semi-finals of the tournament, where they will face Steaua in Bucharest. In the first game, he won 3-1. If he passes the qualification, he will meet with his “eternal” rival.

From the first minutes of the match, the team of Dimitris Andreopoulos showed that the day is not far off for them. With erratic receptions and the Dutch finding solutions to the Greens’ attacking efforts, Orion won the first set 25-22. Panathinaikos improved in the second set and took the lead, but the Dutch drew (15-15). The Greek team took the lead again, but shortly before the end, Vaikstra and Kaislasalo managed to give the victory to their club and make the score 2:0 with the score 25:23.

The picture in the third set resembled the first. Orion took the “head” from the very beginning, and the Panathinaikos players preferred to save their strength and claim the “golden” set, which would ensure their qualification. The Dutch won 25-20. In the final set, the Greens passionately fought for qualification. Led by Kovar and Frago, they played a major role and won the set and the qualifier with a very good block.

After the match, Panathinaikos coach Dimitris Andreopoulos mentioned his team’s problems and especially Hernandez, who played with an injury. “We are going through a very difficult period with successive matches that decide titles and goals. We had Hernandez with an injury problem. As for today’s match, we perfectly understood that the opponent would not come here to give up. In the decisive gold set we succeeded, and we had a clear head,” he stressed.