Yugoslavia beat Greece 3-2 (19-25, 25-23, 25-19, 18-25, 16-14) - duration 2:03
22-Jul, start time: 21:00, end time: 23:03 - Attendance: 3,700 Second in the row victory for Yugoslavia over Greece after a thrilling five-set match.
Greece put up a fight against the reigning Olympic Champions in the second match of the double header of the 4th weekend of the 2002 World League, but eventually fell to Yugoslavia in five sets. Greece came away with the first set with a good blocking performance by Antonis Tsakiropoulos and Sotiris Pantaleon, but the turning point came in the second, when Yugoslavia's head coach Zoran Gajic responded by putting Vladimir Grbic on the court, to tie the match overall at 1-1 and gain a 1-2 lead. It was the first appearance for Grbic, who is injured, in this World League so far. Yugoslavia broke away in the second set after 21-21 and sailed on to a comfortable victory in the third.
But Greece still hadn't said the final word, much to the delight of the almost 4,000 strong crowd. It was an incredible match with an equally exciting ending, as Elias Lappas came on the court for captain Marios Giourdas and helped force the match into a tie-break.
Yugoslavia led throughout most of the fifth set, 5-9, 8-11 and 11-13, but twice Greece caught up at 11-11 and 13-13, before the guest team inched past to finish the match at 14-16.
