ACE Duka claimed a narrow 34-31 victory over Zafeirakis in the opening round of the A1 league on Friday evening. The hosts held their nerve in a close contest to take all three points at home. And here's the thing — we had this one right, putting ACE Duka to win with 53 per cent confidence. It wasn't a shock, really, given what we'd seen from them before.
Zafeirakis started brightly enough, matching their recent form against Ksanfi where they scraped through 39-38. But the visitors couldn't find that extra gear in the closing stages. To be fair, they had chances — the scoreline never really looked comfortable for either side. By then, though, the momentum had shifted.
ACE Duka have been inconsistent in recent outings, losing 28-29 to Aris last week and thrashing 43-29 by AEK Athens back in March. Yet against Zafeirakis, they showed character. The academy lads marked their first start with a goal, and the old head settled them down when things got tight. They ran out of legs a bit, but the result held.
Zafeirakis arrived in decent shape, winning 39-38 away at Ksanfi and picking up three points against Kilkis earlier this season. They'd beaten ACE Duka 27-26 in March, so there was confidence coming in. But this time, they bottled it. The clean-sheet run came to an end, and that mattered more than the scoreline suggested.
The table shows ACE Duka in ninth place with one game played and a draw, while Zafeirakis sit fourth with two points from a win. That's the standing before today's result, of course. The gap between them is still small, but the psychological edge matters in these games. The table goes out of the window in these games, as they say.
What this means for the season is hard to call yet. ACE Duka pinned them back in the final quarter, and that's what decided it. Zafeirakis had nothing to do all evening after the halfway point. The score says 34-31, but the story is in those last twenty minutes.
