Panathinaikos Sweep Floisvos 3-0 to Win Volleyball Super Cup

By Taki Panos

Some finals are a rematch in name only. Seven months after needing five sets and more than two hours to get past Floisvos in the Greek Cup final, Panathinaikos needed just three on Sunday. The Greens beat Floisvos Palaio Faliro 3-0 (25-21, 25-15, 25-15) in the Novibet Super Cup final at the Markopoulo indoor hall on October 18, 2026, lifting the trophy for the third time in their history, as Gazzetta and ERT reported. The whole thing took 84 minutes, per ERT and Fosonline.

For readers new to Greek volleyball, the Super Cup is the season's curtain-raiser, a one-off final that, in the words of Panathinaikos captain Thanasis Protopsaltis, closes the previous season and opens the new one. Dimitris Andreopoulos's side came in as reigning league and cup double winners, according to Sport24 and Fosonline. Their opponents came from Palaio Faliro, the seaside suburb on the southern edge of Athens, and they have become one of the best stories in the men's game.

Here is why. Floisvos finished last in the regular season, in 10th place, yet still reached the cup final, knocking out holders Olympiacos, second-placed Milon and Panionios along the way, as the Hellenic Volleyball Federation and the Volley League noted. In that final in Larissa on March 20, they led twice before Panathinaikos won 3-2 after 133 minutes, ending a 16-year wait for the cup, per the federation and Gazzetta. Sunday promised a sequel. It delivered a statement instead.

The first set was the only one with real tension. Panathinaikos led 8-5 at the first technical timeout and 16-13 at the second, according to Fosonline and the club's match report, but Floisvos kept hanging around thanks to their block. The Greens pulled clear late in the set, as ERT and the club described, with Rasmus Breuning Nielsen's serving doing damage, per the club, and closed it out 25-21. One set down for Floisvos, and the warning signs were already there.

The second set decided the final. The teams were level at 9-9 when Ukrainian outside hitter Dmytro Yanchuk went to the service line and Panathinaikos ran off five straight points to lead 14-9, as Gazzetta and the club reported. From there it was one-way traffic, with the Greens ahead 16-11 and 21-13 at the technical points, per Fosonline and the club, before taking the set 25-15. Floisvos could not pass cleanly.

The third set followed the same script. Panathinaikos led 8-5 and 16-11 at the technical points, according to Fosonline and the club, then stretched the gap to nine at 20-11, as ERT and the club noted. The finish came quickly at 25-15. Nielsen, the Danish opposite, was named the final's MVP, per ERT and Athletiko. It was a professional, almost clinical, performance from a team that admitted it was not sure how ready it would be.

The numbers back that up. Nielsen led all scorers with 15 points, including four aces, according to ERT and the official match statistics. Protopsaltis added nine, per Sport24 and Gazzetta, while Yanchuk and Patrick Gasman scored seven each and Theodoros Voulkidis had five with two blocks, as Sport24 and Fosonline listed. Libero Chandrinos posted 86 percent positive reception, per the same box scores. Panathinaikos hit eight aces to just one for Floisvos, according to the club and Sport24's box score.

Floisvos actually won the block battle 8-3, per the club's report and Sport24's box score, with Josef Polak getting three of them. Camden Gianni led them with eight points, according to Sport24 and the official statistics. Coach Argyris Psarras was honest about the rest. "Panathinaikos made it very hard for us with their serve. We did not manage to cope in reception, and as a result we also had problems in attack. With 28 percent in attack, it is very difficult to claim anything," he said (translated from Greek), per Gazzetta.

Andreopoulos spoke like a coach who has already moved on. "The past in sport does not count at all. We have a new year in front of us and that is what matters," he told ERT (translated from Greek), as Gazzetta and the club reported. He admitted preparation "did not go the way we would have wanted" and added: "Today we celebrate, but tomorrow what we know how to do is work. With humility and without big words" (translated from Greek), per the same sources.

Protopsaltis sounded pleasantly surprised. "I was surprised by the readiness we had today. It was an incomplete preparation, with many injuries," the captain said (translated from Greek), per the club and Volleyplanet. He also looked ahead to Europe: "The Champions League is an opportunity for us to see how close or how far we are from that level" (translated from Greek), per the same sources. Panathinaikos are back in the CEV Champions League after 15 years, Sport24 noted.

That European test is a real one. Panathinaikos were drawn in Pool A with Galatasaray, Berlin Recycling Volleys and a qualifier, according to VolleyTimes and Sport24, and they open away to Galatasaray in Istanbul on December 8, per Sport24 and TheSportsDB. This is the club's third Super Cup after 2006 and 2022, in its eighth final, as ERT and Fosonline noted. It capped a good weekend, after the women's team opened its league season with a 3-1 win over AEK in pink.

My take: this is the kind of win that tells you more than the scoreline. Panathinaikos were short on preparation and banged up, and they still served Floisvos off the court. The block numbers are a small warning, and Europe will punish soft passing far more than the Greek league does. But a team that can win a final at less than full strength, with names good enough to sit alongside some of the best Greek volleyball players we have ranked, deserves to be the favorite again.

Up next is the start of the Novibet Volley League on Saturday, October 24, with Panathinaikos away to Kalamata '80 in Kalamata, according to the club, Athletiko and Volleynews. The first derby against Olympiacos follows on November 14 at the Mets hall, per the club and Volleynews. Keep an eye on our Greek Sports section for every big result. The season has started. The shamrock is already counting trophies.

Sources: Gazzetta, ERT, Sport24, Fosonline, Athletiko, Volleyplanet, Volleynews, VolleyTimes, Panathinaikos AC, Hellenic Volleyball Federation, Volley League, TheSportsDB, Data Project.

Image: Panathinaikos FC crest, via Wikimedia Commons (public domain).