MEF-03, RUSSIA v GREECE

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"We want to play with all our strengths to prove once again to ourselves that we can compete against top teams. Who wouldn't want to be in our position? You don't play with teams like this every day"

Georgios Petreas
team captain (GRE)

"Greece play a very different style of Volleyball than we do. They also have good serve and may risk a lot with it. This is not going to be an easy match."

Tuomas Sammelvuo
head coach (RUS)

Overview

In the first knock-out stage match in Ljubljana the reigning champions Russia face Greece, who qualified as the fourth team of Pool A, with just one small point difference putting them above the fifth placed Portugal. Greeces Athanasios Protopsaltis has been one of the Final Round’s top three receivers so far, with 129 receptions and an average of 39,8%.

Click for pre-match media meeting quotes

Head-to-Head

Russia (including as Soviet Union) have won all their previous seven European Championship matches against Greece.

These nations most recently clashed in the European Championship in 2003, when Russia came twice from behind to claim a five-set victory over Greece in the group phase. Sergey Tetyukhin (24 points) was Russia's top scorer. Nikolaos Roumeliotis (20) scored most points for Greece.

These teams' only previous European Championship knockout tie was in the 1987 semi-finals. Soviet Union beat Greece in straight sets (15-5, 15-5, 15-12) in Ghent to reach the final.

Russia

Defending champions Russia are hoping to claim a record extending 15th European title (including titles won as Soviet Union). Italy (6) are the only other nation to have won more than three European trophies.

The last team to win the European Championship in back-to-back editions were Italy in 2003-2005. Soviet Union won nine European titles in a row from 1967 to 1987.

Russia are one of four teams to have reached the quarter-finals in each of the last four editions of the European Championship, alongside Bulgaria, Italy and Serbia.

Russia have won 20 of their last 21 European Championship matches, including all five in this year's edition. The only exception in that run was a straight-set defeat against Italy in the 2015 quarter-finals.

Russia can win 12 European Championship matches in a row for the first time since 1991 to 1993 (as Russia and Soviet Union).

Dmitrii Volkov (59) is Russia's leading scorer in this year's European championship. Victor Poletaev follows on 48 points.

Only Nimir Abdel-Aziz (24) from Netherlands and Jan Hadrava from Czech Republic (21) have scored more aces in this year's European championship final round than Volkov (12).

Greece

Greece are aiming for their second European Championship podium finish, after a third place in 1987.

Greece will play their first European Championship knockout match since 1995, when they followed up a straight-set defeat against Poland in a 5th-8th place qualification match with a five-set victory over Germany in the seventh-place decider.

Greece won just one of their five group stage matches in this year's European championship, a 3-1 win over Romania on 16 September.

Nikos Zoupani has scored 72 points for Greece in this year's European Championship final round, more than any of his teammates. Athanasios Protopsaltis follows on 67 points.

Zoupani was Greece's top scorer in four of their five group stage matches. Protopsaltis scored a team-high 22 points in their final fixture against Portugal (3-1 loss).

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