15.09.2008, 12:50
Doukas will debut in the CL

The Greek team lost in Estonia but qualified. They will be the fourth club of the country to reach so far.

Doukas will debut in the CL

After an excellent game and an important 35-23 victory in Greece last week, Doukas solved their task in the home of the Estonian champion Pölva Serviti.  and qualified for the Champions League.

The Greek champions lost 26-19, but still managed to advance to the group phase for the first time in their history. Doukas are the fourth Greek team after Panellilinos, Filippos Verias and Athinaikos to make it.

Pölva were always leading during the second leg game, but the team of Giorgos Kranakis kept a small difference of 3-4 goals. The first half ended with a 12-9 for Pölva, while the hosts took a 4-5 goal lead in the second half  and in the last 20 minutes it was 7 goals already.

It was not enough to qualify, though. They were far from the 12 goals, the difference of the first game. The most valuable player of Doukas was playmaker Sasa Zivoulovic who scored 10 goals - 18 in the two games.

Now Doukas will play a very difficult group phase with Spanish champion Ciudad Real, Danish Gudme Svendborg and Bosna Sarajevo. The target of the Greek champions is to gain experience and to enjoy the games. The realistic target could be a third place, but they promise for sure that they will fight all the games.

"I' m satisfied only with the qualification"

The coach of Doukas, Giorgos Kranakis, commented: ''We were able to keep the difference. We received too many goals from 6 metres and in general we had very bad statistics in offence. In defence we were very good. I' m satisfied only with the qualification, not with the game."

TEXT: Konstantinos Chatzidimitriou