VakıfBank fight back from two sets down to beat Eczacıbaşı in five

The fourth-round Sultanlar Ligi meeting between Eczacıbaşı Peron İstanbul and VakıfBank brought two different match stories into the same evening. The hosts took the first two sets, but VakıfBank were celebrating after the fifth.

The five-set comeback

Eczacıbaşı opened with sets of 25–14 and 25–18 to lead 2–0. VakıfBank took the third 25–18 and the fourth 25–22 to force a deciding set. A 15–9 win in that final set gave the visitors a 3–2 victory.

The two sides of the derby

For me, the defining feature of this derby was the trailing side’s ability to make the match a contest again. A two-set deficit did not mean it was over; each new set added another threshold to overcome.

For Eczacıbaşı, the story was not converting their early superiority into victory. For VakıfBank, it was winning after a difficult start. The five-set result showed again that competition between the league’s leading teams cannot be explained by a single phase of a match.