Halkbank Ankara vs VC Greenyard Maaseik 2-3 (25-20, 25-23, 27-29, 20-25, 10-15)

Halkbank reached a new milestone in the #CLVolleyM playing their 45th match today, while Taner Atik was in charge of his first match as head coach.

After a strong start to the match, getting ahead by two sets, Halkbank , the Blegians from Maaseik  managed to narrowly win the third set and from then take control of the match, ending in a thrilling 5 sets win for them.

Approximately 2000 students were present at the match, creating an electric atmosphere throughout.

Taner Atik, head Coach Halkbank Ankara: ‘After they changed the setter, things changed in a negative way for us. Of course this is a Champions League Level, top level of volleyball. First two set we showed good level but after that our attack and contra-attack did not work very well. That’s why this is the result.’

Dmitrii Bahov, Halkbank Ankara: "It was a hard game. We fight until the end. We played very good for the first two sets. On the third set, during the important moments we did a lot of mistakes. The opponent came back in the match and then it was much difficult to fight back."

Joel Banks, VC Greenyard Maaseik: ‘Halkbank started in an amazing way. We had trouble coming back into the game. We tried too much on defense and had power on our attack. After that it worked and we did good. It was very difficult to play against a good Turkish Team.’

Xavier Folguera Estruga, player VC Greenyard Maaseik: ‘It was a special win. We were loosing 2-0 and then we came back. It was very good to start the Champions League with a win. They put a lot of pressure on us and then we start leading. After the change of our coach, we started doing better.’