Qatar continued to dominate Greece and posted their second victory in the 2017 FIVB World League Group 3 match in Tallinn, Estonia on Saturday.
Wing spiker Ilija Ivoic 13 kills and two aces in 16 points and Nikola Vasic’s 12 pushed Qatar to a straight but hard-fought 25-23 25-21 29-27 victory in the second round Pool D3 clash at the Kalev Sports Hall.
Last week also, Qatar had defeated Greece 3-0 in Barcelona, Spain during the first phase of the Group 3 game.
Today´s match top scorer was Qatar wing-spiker Ilija Ivoic with 16, which included 13 smashes and two aces. Nikola Vasic chipped in with 12 for the winners. Rafail Koumentakis answered with 14 for Greece and .
At the beginning of the match it was the Qatar’s team good blocking that gave them a quick 8-4 lead. But then they made two errors in attack and straight blocks from Greece levelled the score in 10-10. Greece continued their strike. An ace from Andreas Andreadis and one more block gave them 12-10 lead.
After Qatar team´s opposite Samb Tamsir hit the ball out, Greece had seemingly firm 19-15 edge. But the Asian team answered with 8-3 spurt and managed to get 23-22 lead. Although Sotirios Sotiriou levelled the score, it was Nikola Vasic at first and then Belal Abunabot who ended the first set 25-23 for Qatar.
Same scenario repeated itself in the second and third set. A good start gave Greece a 5-1 edge but little bit later Ivoic made it 9-8 for Qatar. Teams then moved some time equally but after a powerful block Qatar grabbed 20-17 lead and it was followed with Ivoic ending the set with score 25-21.
The wing spiker continued his hot strike and his early smashes gave Qatar a 6-5 lead in the third one. Koumentakis answered in both offence and block and Greece sprinted to 13-9 edge. But again they could not capitalise the good situation and soon it was 15 all. Ivoic made it both 22-21 and 23-22 to Qatar but Greece fought back. They even neutralised two match balls but the third one ended with Qatar’s team block.
So Greece could not finish their 150th game in World League with a positive result and have now lost all five matches in this year’s campaign. On Sunday, they hope to end this sad series against hosts of the tournament.
Estonia, meanwhile, shot up to the second spot in the overall group standings behind Germany when they outclassed Venezuela 25-21 25-16 25-19. Their blocking was exceptional as they gained a massive 13-1 edge through it.
Qatar take on Venezuela in their last pool match. Both the teams have six points each with two wins.
Standings Group D3
Rnk Team P W L Pts
1 ESTONIA 2 2 0 6
2 VENEZUELA 2 1 1 3
3 QATAR 2 1 1 3
4 GREECE 2 0 2 0
Overall Group 3 standings
Rnk Team P W L Pts
1 GERMANY 5 4 1 12
2 ESTONIA 5 4 1 11
3 SPAIN 5 4 1 11
4 AUSTRIA 4 3 1 9
5 MONTENEGRO 5 3 2 8
6 MEXICO 4 2 2 7
7 TUNISIA 4 2 2 7
8 QATAR 5 2 3 6
9 VENEZUELA 5 2 3 6
10 CHINESE TAIPEI 4 1 3 4
11 KAZAKHSTAN 5 1 4 3
12 GREECE 5 0 5 0