Splendid comeback for Iraklis to the delight of local fans

Iraklis THESSALONIKI celebrated a great comeback in the CEV Volleyball Champions League by claiming tonight the match with Belgium’s Noliko MAASEIK 3:2 (25-23, 27-25, 14-25, 22-25, 15-11) with some 2’000 die-hard fans in attendance.
Noliko caught the best start in the opening set (4:6) but Iraklis turned the score around with an ace of Kostas Prousalis (8:6). Head coach Sotirios Drikos asked for a time-out as his guys were trailing down 9:12, and after Latvian Ansis Medenis replaced Sinan Cem Tanik, Iraklis cut the gap. The head coach of Noliko, Vital Heynen, received a yellow card as the score stood at 21 all and this helped Iraklis on its quest to seize the first set (25-23).
Iraklis went up 8:6 in set 2 but Noliko came back from 13:9 to 13:11 with the help of Cameroonian Nathan Wounembaina. Drikos asked for a time-out as Noliko got the -1 and Iraklis defended as good as it could (16:13) before Noliko answered back (19:20). However, 40-year old and Slovak born Andrej Kravarik played some fantastic actions and Iraklis eventually stamped the provisional 2:0 (27-25) on the scoreboard.
The block of Noliko worked well in set 3 (6:9) and the guests sped up for the 8:14 as Iraklis could not stop their march up to the final 14-25. Iraklis fought back in the fourth set (15:13) before an ace of Kevin Klinkenberg called for the 15 all. By this moment Noliko had evidently more energy and good nerves and could hence go for the deciding tie-break. There Iraklis set the tempo (8:5) as teams changed sides of the net before Kravarik aced for the final 15-11.
Kostas Christofidelis was the best scorer of Iraklis with 18 points, Nikolaos Smaragdis totaled 16 while Simon Van de Voorde charted 20 for Noliko.
“When you lose a game you are never happy. The atmosphere was great here but unfortunately we lost because of some mistakes in the first two sets. It was good to make it 2:2 but it was not enough”, said Vital Heynen and Sotiris Drikos completed: “It was a fair victory for us. Noliko is a very good team, but we believed in our chances until the end. The fans of Iraklis helped us very much and we thank them for their support”.



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