Qatar still too strong for Greece in this year´s World League campaign

Today´s match top scorer was Qatar wing-spiker Ilija Ivoic with 16, Rafail Koumentakis answered with 14. 
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 team 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 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 to Qatar. 




Same scenario repeated itself in the second and third set. Good start gave Greece a 5-1 edge but little bit later Ivoic made it 9-8 to Qatar. Teams then moved some time equally but after a powerful block Qatar grabbed 20-17 lead and little bit later Ivoic ended the set with score 25-21.



Wing-spiker continued his hot strike and his spike gave Qatar 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 capitalize 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 neutralized 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. Tomorrow they hope to end this sad series against hosts of the tournament.

Matches on Sunday