Olympiacos Piraeus, after three unsuccessful appearances in Final Four, made it for their first Euroleague Final! The reds won 10-8 Kinef Kirishi from Russia in the first semifinal of Women’s Euroleague Final Four, taking place in “Petros Kapagerof” Swimming Pool of Piraeus that was full of waterpolo fans.
Victory was an Italian job, as Roberta Bianconi of Olympiacos scored 6 important goals and was a real leader in the pool! Goalkeeper Diamantopoulou saved quite many Russian attacks on extra player and Australian Ashleigh Southern also made some great defenses. Center forward Alexandra Asimaki gave many battles and won exclusions that helped the reds score on extra player (5/8 attempts)
The Russian team fought hard, but didn’t make to the final, in their 9th presence in a Final Four. Zubkova did her best scoring 3 goals, but it wasn’t enough. The match was a tie till the beginning of 4th period, when Olympiacos managed to be above by two goals lead. Roberta Bianconi scored the winning goal 10 seconds before the end and made all supporters on “Petros Kapagerof” to burst into amazing frenetic celebrations!
Olympiacos is going to play for their first Euroleague Cup tomorrow at 20.15, against the winner of the second semifinal between Sabadell (Spain) and UVSE (Hungary).
1st Period (3-3)
0-1, 06.29 on extra-player, no4 SIMANOVICH Anastasia
1-1, 04.32 6-on-6, no5 MANOLIOUDAKI Triantafyllia (captain)
1-2, 04.15 6-on-6, no10 KHOKHRIAKOVA Evgeniia (captain)
2-2, 03.35 on extra-player, no11 BIANCONI Roberta
2-3, 00.20 6-on-6, no3 PROKOFYEVA Ekaterina
3-3, 00.02 6-on-6, no8 PLEVRITOU Margarita
2nd Period (3-2)
3-4, 06.26 on extra-player, no2 ZUBKOVA Tatiana
4-4, 05.54 on extra-player, no11 BIANCONI Roberta
5-4, 04.59 on extra-player, no11 BIANCONI Roberta
First lead for Olympiacos
6-4, 02.58 on extra-player, no7 ASIMAKI Alexandra
3 goals in a row for Olympiacos
6-5, 01.05, 6-on-6, no11 IVANOVA Evgeniya
3rd Period (1-2)
7-5, 06.59 on extra-player, no11 BIANCONI Roberta
7-6, 02.58 on extra-player, no3 PROKOFYEVA Ekaterina
7-7, 00.58 on extra-player, no2 ZUBKOVA Tatiana
Kirishi ties the match once again
4th Period (3-1)
8-7, 07.21 6-on-6, no10 SOUTHERN Ashleigh Grace
9-7, 05.17 on contra attack, no11 BIANCONI Roberta
Olympiacos has 2 goals lead again
Yellow card to Olympiacos coach
3rd exclusion for no10 of Kirishi
9-8, 02.16 on extra-player, no2 ZUBKOVA Tatiana
10-8, 00.10, 6-on-6, no11 BIANCONI Roberta
Statistics
Olympiacos
6-on-6, 4 goals
Extra player, 5 goals on 8 attempts
Contra attack, 1 goal
Kirishi
6-on-6, 3 goals
Extra player, 5 goals on 8 attempts
Olympiacos
Coach: Pavlides Theocharis
1 DIAMANTOPOULOU Chrysoula
2 TETZALIDOU Evdokia
3 PLEVRITOU Eleftheria
4 SORA Maria
5 MANOLIOUDAKI Triantafyllia (captain) 1 goal
6 AVRAMIDOU Alkisti
7 ASIMAKI Alexandra 1 goal
8 PLEVRITOU Margarita 1 goal
9 KALOGERAKOU Michaela Vasiliki
10 SOUTHERN Ashleigh Grace 1 goal
11 BIANCONI Roberta 6 goals
12 NIARCHAKOU Virginia Panagiota
13 STAMATOPOULOU Ioanna
Kinef Kirishi
Coach: NARITSA Alexandr
1 KARNAUKH Anna
2 ZUBKOVA Tatiana 3 goals
3 PROKOFYEVA Ekaterina 2 goals
4 SIMANOVICH Anastasia 1 goal
5 KUROCHKINA Viktoriia
6 KRIMER Kseniia
7 BALAI Kseniia
8 KIRILCHEVA Ekaterina
9 IAKUSHEVA Ekaterina
10 KHOKHRIAKOVA Evgeniia (captain) 1 goal
11 IVANOVA Evgeniya 1 goal
12 RYZHKOVA Daria
13 IUSHKOVA Polina
Referees: Mrs. Ursula WENGENROTH MARTUNELLI (SUI) / Mr. Peter VAN DER LOO (NED)
