Greece women’s national team
The head coach stresses that the group did not have much time to prepare for this tournament: “We are not totally ready” he says.
Slovakia, on the other hand, may well try to exploit the home advantage to finish first in the Pool and advance directly to the third round coming up in early January 2014.
“We have a very young team with many girls who will celebrate their debut in an international competition of this caliber” Maria Lamprinidou says. “However, our goal is to finish first or second so as to being able to continue our World Championship adventure” she continues.
The roster includes the following players: Athina Papafotiou (A.E.K. ATHENS), Eleni Kiosi (Trachones), Georgia Lamprousi, Izabel Ivanova, Aikaterina Giota (Iraklis KIFISIAS), Evangelia Chantava (Karsikaya/TUR), Apostolia Nousia (Panathinaikos ATHENS), Styliani Christodoulou (Olympiacos PIRAEUS), Maria Genitsaridi (Vyronas), Aliki Konstantinidou (Anatolia), Eirini Kelesidou (Iraklis THESSALONIKI), and Maria Lamprinidou (Quimper Volley/FRA).
On the other hand, the men’s national team is in Halmstad, Sweden, and will be playing there the hosts around superstar Marcus Nilsson as well as Norway and Iceland. Greece will be able to count on their best setters, Konstantinos Prousalis and Dmytro Filippov, who have recovered from muscular strains.
Head coach Alekos Leonis and his assistant Sotiris Drikos are planning to edge Norway and Iceland before playing Sweden for first place in the group to make it directly to the third round in January. “We had a long trip but we are ready and look forward to the matches” says Menelaos Kokkinakis. “We had a good preparation in Orestiada and played friendly games with Latvia to get ready for this tournament. Our goal is to finish first or second and after that we will focus entirely on our home and away matches with Belgium in order to qualify for the final round of the 2013 European Championship” he adds.
The group comprises the following players: Konstantinos Prousalis, Georgios Petreas (Narbonne/FRA), Dmytro Filippov (JASTRZEBSKI Wegiel/POL), Andreas Fragkos (Andreoli LATINA/ITA), Konstantinos Christofidelis, Menelaos Kokkinakis, Nikolaos Smaragdis, Georgios Stefanou (Olympiacos PIRAEUS), as well as Andreas Andreadis, Georgios Tzioumakas (Iraklis THESSALONIKI), Mitar Tzourits (TRENTINO Diatec/ITA), and Achilleas Papadimitriou (BEAUVAIS Oise/FRA).
To read more news from this competition click on World Championship – European Qualification W.
