Thessaloniki, Greece, June 20, 2015 - Greece dropped first two sets, but came back to beat Slovakia 3-2 (14-25, 17-25, 25-16, 25-19, 15-10) in a dramatic five setter in Thessaloniki.
Slovakia registered an impressive start into the match blowing away Greece 25-14 and 25-17. The Pool G hosts did not show anything which could give their fans hope for a successful outcome of Saturday's game. However, in last week's tournament Slovakia were also two sets up to Greece to finally register a defeat.
The third set saw an even game until the second technical timeout when Greece raced to a 16-13 lead. This signified the downfall for Slovakia as they apparently lost their concentration and gifted the set to their opposition 25-16 on a service fault from Martin Bencz.
Greece made a better start into set four managing to keep a narrow advantage until the first technical timeout. Then Martin Sopko and Milos Hornik sent the ball off the court to sink Slovakia 10-7 down. Soon Greece's advantage rose to five points at 17-12 and Slovakia coach Flavio Guinelli called the timeout, but it did not help as Mitar Tzourits registered an ace and added another point to make it 19-13. Finally Greece took the set 25-19.
The decider was even only in the early stage as Hornik's service fault put a 4-4 on the scoreboard. Greece registered afterwards a four points rally to jump to 8-4 lead and eventually to close out the set 15-10.
To see the match gallery, read the full match live commentary and post-match comments, visit the
match page.