Olympiacos Beat Netland Kalisz 30-24 in EHF European Cup First Leg

By Taki Panos

Handball rarely gets the big headlines in Greece, so let me give it one. Olympiacos beat Polish side Netland Kalisz 30-24 on Saturday evening at the indoor hall in Ilioupolis, in the first leg of the EHF European Cup round of 64, as SPORT24 reported. It was 15-14 at halftime, and the Greek champions pulled clear after the break to take a six-goal cushion to Poland. Dimitris Panagiotou led the way with seven goals, while goalkeeper Karim Hendawy had a big night between the posts, per in.gr.

If you are new to the club's handball side, this is the same multi-sport Olympiacos you know from football and basketball, and you can read more about its many departments in our guide to the Olympiacos sports club. It has been a busy week for the red and whites, from the Hezze header in Marseille to the overtime win over Barcelona in the EuroLeague. The handball team arrived as the reigning treble winners in Greece, in.gr noted, and the club billed this as the start of its European season, according to Olympiacos.

The start was anything but comfortable. Olympiacos spent the opening 12 minutes chasing, trailing 2-3, 3-4, 4-5, 5-6, 6-7 and 7-8, before Panagiotou finally put Olympiacos ahead 9-8, per SPORT24. He struck again in the 15th minute for 11-8. Ivan Vida added two goals late in the half for 14-12 and 15-13, but the Poles kept answering, and the teams went to the locker rooms separated by a single goal, in.gr reported. One goal after 30 minutes is not a lead. It is a coin toss.

The second half was a different story. Grigorios Tzimpoulas scored in the 33rd minute to make it 18-14, and then came the moment of the night. With 39:55 on the clock, Hendawy found the net with a throw from his own goal, pushing the lead to 21-16, according to SPORT24. Athanasios Papazoglou finished a fast break at 46:16 for 25-19, in.gr wrote. The five-minute splits from ERT Sports show the margin sitting at four or five goals at every checkpoint after that, and David Schmidt scored the final goal for 30-24.

The scoring was nicely spread out. Behind Panagiotou's seven, Tzimpoulas and Schmidt had five each, Tomas Canete and Eleftherios Pagiatis four each, Vida two, and Papazoglou, Matija Nikolic and Hendawy one apiece, the box score in ERT Sports showed. For Kalisz, Jakub Trzaskowski scored five, while Lukasz Kucharzyk and Rostyslav Polishchuk had four each, per the same report. Goalkeeper Piotr Wyszomirski even chipped in a goal for the visitors, ERT listed, on a night when both men in goal had their say.

Head coach Riccardo Trillini did not sound like a man celebrating. "Difficult game. We are not used to playing this kind of game," he said afterward, as quoted by SPORT FM (translated from Greek). "We did not start very well, with our defense too deep and overly aggressive. We have to understand that we have a very good goalkeeper, show patience, stay organized in defense and let them shoot from nine meters." In other words, trust Hendawy and stop chasing. Simple to say, harder to do.

He also gave the visitors plenty of credit. "In attack we did quite well, but today the opponents were very good in one against one duels," Trillini said, per SPORT FM (translated from Greek). "We have to find different solutions within this week. The six-goal difference is good. They are a very strong team with great physical strength. They are used to competing at a high level, since they play in the Polish league." Fair warning. Polish handball is no soft landing, and Kalisz did not look like tourists.

Nikos Passias sounded confident about the trip. "Congratulations to the team. We gave a first battle against a very good team, a tough one, especially in defense," he told SPORT FM (translated from Greek). "We showed character, we had quite good shots, everything went the way we had studied it, and our defense worked. In attack we might need to change two or three little things. We are going to Poland to get the qualification." No hedging there.

Trillini had been clear before the game about why every goal mattered. "The biggest challenge in European competitions is that everything is decided over two games," he said, as the club published (translated from Greek). "Be ready to fight until the 60th minute, not only to win but also to achieve the best possible goal difference ahead of the return leg." He also said the team's hard domestic test against AEK last Monday would help it handle European intensity, in.gr reported. Panagiotou added that the Monday win over AEK gave the team energy, per in.gr.

There is history behind that ambition. In May 2024, Olympiacos reached the final of this same competition and lost the trophy to Valur of Iceland in the most painful way possible. The Greek side won the return leg 35-32 in Piraeus, but Valur took the tie 62-61 on aggregate and then won the penalty shootout, the EHF reported. A few thousand supporters in red and white filled the stands that night, the EHF wrote, and that kind of heartbreak tends to stick. AEK are in the hunt too, after a 37-21 first-leg win over Anorthosis on Saturday, per SPORT24 and AEK.

My take: a six-goal lead in handball is good, not safe. Possessions come fast, and a hot goalkeeper or a ten-minute run can erase that kind of margin before the coaches finish a timeout. What I liked most was the second half defense and the way Hendawy changed the game, including that cheeky goal from his own net. What worries me a little is that slow start, because a 7-8 opening in Kalisz, in front of their own fans, would feel very different. Trillini clearly knows it, which is half the battle.

The return leg is set for Saturday, October 24, at 19:00 Greek time in Kalisz, in.gr confirmed, with a place in the last 32 on the line. We will be following Olympiacos, AEK and the rest of the Greek teams in Europe all season, so keep an eye on our Greek Sports section for every result. Six goals in the bank. Now go finish the job.

Sources: SPORT24, in.gr, ERT Sports, SPORT FM, Olympiacos SFP, EHF, AEK.

Image: Olympiacos F.C. crest, via Wikimedia Commons (CC0).