Group A, Day 3: NC Vouligameni (GRE) v Dinamo Tbilisi (GEO) 12-7
The Greeks didn’t leave any open questions as they stormed to a 4-0 lead in a little more than four minutes, and all their goals came at equal strength. Soon they netted a fifth one from the centre and even though Dinamo also managed to get on the scoreboard, Efsthatios Kalogeropoulos scored his second in the opening period, from a 6 on 5, four seconds before the buzzer for 6-2.
And Vouliagmeni rolled on in the second – though a penalty, earned in a man-up, brought the Georgians a bit closer, the hosts hit back with three goals, including two more centre shots by Dimitrios Nikolaidis, while shutting out their rivals for the remaining seven and a half minutes. The 9-3 lead did enough damage – both for Dinamo and for the game itself. The Greeks laid back a bit, while their rivals didn’t have the strength to narrow the gap, so the third period saw one goal apiece – Dinamo’s one came lately, to halt their 14:42 minute-long drought.
The fourth period saw more hits, the Georgians had a better spell, after netting four in three periods, they could add three more, still, nothing endangered Vouligameni’s first win in the Champions League.
How they saw it
Vladimir Vujasinovic, coach, Vouliagmeni
“We are happy, we wanted to win our first match and we did it with a great performance. The key is that we don’t feel any pressure, we just play and try to improve game by game. The New Year will bring some important games, both in the Champions League and in the Greek Cup, we have to be ready for that and these games help us to achieve our goals.”
Dejan Stanojevic, coach, Dinamo
“We opened the first period on a really low level. We tried to prepare for their aggressive start, but our players were not ready to handle this style of play. Then in the third and especially in the fourth quarter we showed some decent moves, but at this moment we have problems with the selection of our shots and with the quality of the shots. That really made the difference today.”
