“It was the most nervous 24 hours of this tournament because the qualification was not in our hands but you can imagine how happy we are to qualify! We had to wait until the last moment to know that. We watched the game altogether on EuroVolleyTV, and found out we qualified only after seeing the event website when refreshing the pool standing,” says Greece captain Georgios Petreas. One single, little point conceded to the opposition less than those Portugal dropped across five matches in Pool A was enough to swing the balance and for Greece to make it to the 8th Finals of CEV EuroVolley 2019 Men!

Portugal and Romania opened the last day of Pool A action at Sud de France Arena in Montpellier with a spot in the 8th Finals at stake, with Greece watching closely as they still had small chances of progressing to the next stage. Portugal eventually lost 1-3 to Romania but both teams have to pack their stuff and travel home.

Greece, Portugal and Romania finish Pool A on the same 1-4 win-loss record, the same ranking points – three – and sets ratio – 0.3846. As a result, it is the match points ratio to break the tie and it goes down to the wire, with one single point separating Greece and Portugal, as they both scored 386 across five matches, but Greece conceded 432 to their opponents, compared to Portugal’s 433. As a result, the eventual match points ratio stands at 0.8935 for Greece and 0.8915 for Portugal, meaning that Greece continue their journey in the 8th Finals and Portugal have to return home.

It is a further reason to celebrate for Greece’s Volleyball family after their women’s team reached the EuroVolley 8th Finals as well – in their first such appearance since 2001 – and the men’s national team achieve now the same feat in dramatic fashion after returning to the EuroVolley stage for the first time in ten years.