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Yugoslavia - Greece 2-3
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Belgrade, July 7 (fivb.ch> - The Greek team reversed the fortunes of the Olympic Champions Yugoslavia on Sunday in the second of two meetings in Intercontinental round 2 of the World League to take victory 3-2 (25-19, 23-25, 26-24, 20-25, 16-14) in a marathon match lasting 2 hours 19 minutes.
The Greek side, determined not to repeat Saturday's mistakes in Podgorica were able to capitalize on early mistakes by the Yugoslavs for a comfortable first set victory before.
But with the vocal crowd behind them, the Yugoslav team gathered up its forces, and its young players put on a spectacular show of aces and rallies to level 1-1.
The home team looked more comfortable in the third, but when their concentration slipped, the Greeks were quick to capitalize on their mistakes. Now attacking and defending efficiently, the Greeks mastered the third 26-24, even if their coach was handed a red card infringement by the referee.
Emotions ran high as the teams leveled at 2-all with every point a battle of attrition and the crowd roared at every point scored in the final stages of this nail-biter between the two traditional Balkan rivals, until the Greeks seized the moment and the last points to draw 1-1 in this weekend's tie.
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Earlier news
Yugoslavia - Greece 3-0
Podgorica, YUGOSLAVIA, July 5 (fivb.ch) - The Yugoslav team scored a 3-0 victory over Greece on Friday in extremely hot temperatures and in front of a passionate home crowd.
Both teams wracked up errors but when the chips were down, it was Yugoslavia that gathered its forces and made the necessary moves to snatch victory in all three sets in the Sports Hall Moraca in Podgorica. The Greek side was spirited, but were ultimately unable to recover from a string of errors.
The first set went the way of the Yugoslavs, despite two substitutions.
The substitution worked well for the Greek team in the second set and they took an early lead before a series of errors and a bunch of aces by the powerful Geric made the opposition rethink their tactics. The second set was punctuated with rally after rally, as well as a lot of errors on both sides, but the Yugoslavs pulled off several courageous moves that were enough to swing the second set their way.
Then bolstered by the 2-set advantage, the Yugoslavs went out confidently in the third. The Greek side slipped again into making mistakes, while the crowd thrilled to a string of aces by the powerful Vujevic. The match ended on a high note for the home side, who now appear to have regained the type of form that won them the Olympic gold medal in Sydney.
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