In the second round of the Champions League group phase, Trentino defeated Thessaloniki 3-1 in Greece. The Italians remain perfect at the top of its group as it aims to qualify for the Playoffs 12. It’s been anything but easy for Stoytchev’s men in a heated atmosphere with over 3500 fans in the arena. The Greeks looked extremely dangerous until the third set when Mitar Djuric took over. He led the team from 19-16 down to 22-19 up to eventually win this decisive set.
“This is an important win, which cannot be explained only by the character of our players – said coach Stoytchev . Just like in Forlì (league win three days ago), we managed to get back on our feet at a very difficult moment of the game with Antonov’s serve. It has to be said that we had our share of luck too. What I would like is to see the team win thanks to a different fundamental every time round, while right now our serve seems to be the only weapon that keeps getting us out of trouble”.
Paok Thessaloniki-Trentino Diatec 1-3 (22-25, 18-25, 21-25, 13-25) PAOK: Jimenez 15, Pantakidis 6, Cepeda 16, Petroglu 9, Georgiev 5, Kournetas, Gkaras (L); Ntinas, Karasavvidis, Efraimidis, Terzis, Sampanai. Coach. Nikolay Jeliazkov. TRENTINO DIATEC: Lanza 14, Solé 13, Djuric 15, Antonov 14, Van de Voorde 4, Giannelli 1, Colaci (L); De Angelis, Nelli, Mazzone D. 6, Bratoev. DNP. Mazzone T.. Coach. Radostin Stoytchev.
