Ankara, Turkey, February 10, 2015. Halkbank ANKARA beat Belogorie BELGOROD by 3:1 (25-20, 20-25, 26-24, 28-24) in a first-leg Playoffs 12 match of the 2015 CEV DenizBank Volleyball Champions League - Men. This way, in the Match of the Week, the Turkish side took at least a partial revenge for losing last year’s final in four sets at the very same Baskent volleyball hall, but this time a second leg is on the way next week in Russia.
In the first set, the block-outs of the home boys were superior but their serving was not what they wanted it to be. It was difficult for them to catch the rhythm. Belogorie did not serve well either, so the score stayed level through the second technical time-out. After that Halkbank came out fully concentrated with great blocking by Osmany Juantorena and Emre Batur, as well as Tsvetan Sokolov scoring points from every corner of the court. The home side added some good defending to its performance and closed the set at 25-20.
The Russian team started the second set much better with successful attacks through the middle and good defence. Belogorie had a 4-point advantage at each of the two technical time-outs. Halkbank’s players found it difficult to concentrate with Dmitriy Muserskiy, Gyorgy Grozer and Taras Khtey spiking mercilessly, leading their team to the tie after 25-20 at the end of the set.
The third set was full of effective digs by Osmany Juantorena and featured a very good performance from the home guys inspired by the great support of the fans. Ulas Kiyak was putting on a show with his good passes. However, Belogorie did not fall far behind and even gained the first set point at 24-23. Still, with three points in a row, Halkbank ended the set at 26-24.
Fighting on both sides of the net continued through the fourth set. Neither Belogorie nor Halkbank waned to lose. The Turkish team managed to recover from a 3-point deficit at the second technical time-out and later saved three set points for Belogorie before, again with three consecutive points, finished it all off well into overtime, at 28-26.
Belogorie’s team manager Andrey Gubin stated: “We lost today, but we fought hard against Halkbank. We made a lot of mistakes, but we will try to do our best in the return game. Our team needs to refresh and concentrate for the game in Belgorod. This was a good lesson for us today.”
Halkbank’s Nuri Şahin commented: “It is a dream for us. We have the advantage before the next game. But we should not exaggerate this and concentrate for the next game. We won tonight and we want to continue in the Playoffs 6.”
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