Galery

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Emanuela Karastoyanova

Russia's Dynamo Moscow put an end of the European hopes of Panathinaikos men's team during the 12^th round of the Champions League. The match which was played on the court in Glyfada, in Athens ended with a score of 2:3, thereby canceling the chances of the Greens to qualify for the next phase of the league. While the game did not end with victory for the hosts the match was dynamic and full of emotions. Both teams showed a high level of play. The match was especially dramatic during the fourth set, when the guests organized a strong attack. 

At the beginning of the game the Green team showed a very good image and making impression was their desire to win at any cost. They organized good attacks and managed to quickly gain a substantial lead. They showed strong serves and good blocks, and the hard attacks by their opponents were greatly defended by Agamez. The set finished with 25-18. During the second set, however, the guests decided to "set the record straight" and organized well-coordinated attacks and stronger feeds, which helped them, accumulate points. So they turned the outcome in their favor and gained a lead (which was aided by the ruthless serves of Poltavski), which in the end of the set was 25:14. Follow was an answer by the Green team - although difficult they were able to equalize the score, but could not gain great advantage. This was the culmination point of the match in which both teams fought and the victory was sometimes on one side of the net and sometimes on the other... During the next set the Russians reinforced their defense and thus invalidated any chances of attacks by the Green team. Simultaneously, they launched strong attacks (mainly in the face Dade) and his ruthlessly set the record straight. Before the end of the game the sporting spirit of the Greens appeared once again, but the final score was decided by the tie break, during which Dynamo took the lead and crossed all chances for the Greens to rank for the Champions League. 

Sets ended with 25-18, 14-25, 27-25, 32-34, 12-15 

Panathinaikos (Kazazis): Zagoumni, Agamez, Hristofidelis, Samika, Smaragdis, Pantaleon, Papadimitriou, Lapas, Minoudis 

Dynamo Moscow (Tseredkin): Grankin, Yakovlev, Dade, Berezko, Volkov, Serbinin, Salparov, Markin, Sivozelez, Poltavski, Zubkov, Samoylenko