Kazan, Russia, April 2, 2017. In the last return match of the women’s CEV Cup semi-finals, Dinamo KAZAN defeated Galatasaray ISTANBUL 3-0 (25-18, 25-20, 25-18) and then made it to the Final with a thrilling 15-11 victory in the Golden Set. Dinamo will play against Unet Yamamay BUSTO ARSIZIO who yesterday came back from two sets down to claim the all-Italian semi-final with Pomì CASALMAGGIORE and progress to the ‘grand finale’ where the ‘Butterflies’ will be trying to secure a third title in the competition after they already finished on top of the podium in 2010 and 2012.
Dinamo KAZAN faced a difficult task in their Semi-Final after the Russian club arrived in Istanbul earlier this week for the first match right after an extremely hard game in their national championship and so consequently were not able to show their best performance. The Turkish team ended up coming out victorious leaving Dinamo needing to win with a score of 3-0 or 3-1 in the second match and then also take the Golden Set to progress to the final.
From the very beginning of the match, it looked to be tense both on the court and in the hall with teams narrowly following each other 8-7. Dinamo performed slightly better with blocking, being able to stop even Nadia Centoni from their opposition. Irina Zaryazhko’s ace helped her team take a four-point lead at 14-10 but by the second technical time-out, the visitors were catching up (16-14). However, Olga Biryukova came off the bench and joined the team to serve and make a +6 increase with an ace and scoring blocks to decide the fate of the set, with it ending 25-18.
Daria Isaeva’s cannon-ball service helped the home team to immediately get ahead in the second set (5-1) with the Turkish coach Ataman Güneyligil being forced to ask for a time-out trailing 10-6. But Dinamo continued to terrorise their Turkish opponents with blocking, and Isaeva led the attack – to 16-11. Under 360 degree pressure from the Kazan team and their 1,650 supporters in the hall, the Turkish players made a series of mistakes before Irina Zaryazhko’s ace put an end to the set (25-20).
The third set was even more successful for Dinamo thanks again to their good serving (10-3). Feeling the match slipping away, Galatasaray ISTANBUL mounted a comeback but by the time they found some momentum, Dinamo’s score soared by seven points to 22-13 and it ended 25-18 to the home team.
The Golden Set is always a moment of truth, for which the entire previous match(es) were only a prelude, so Galatasaray immediately began to put pressure on their rivals as if they hadn’t just suffered a convincing 3-0 defeat and took the lead 5-3. Aslı Kalaç’s serving mistake saved Dinamo from an even larger deficit. The Kazan girls found some spaces and power and it was soon 11-8. Isaeva scored once again to make it 14-10. Towards the very end of the set, Centoni scored a couple of points, but the mistake of her colleagues in touching the net decided the fate of the semi-final of the CEV Cup, with Dinamo KAZAN being through to the final.
Alexander Perepelkin, head coach of Dinamo KAZAN said: “You could see that our team’s spirit was super high today. If we learn to aim for every match like this, the team will grow regardless of whether it’s a home match or not. Even after the first match, after the referee’s signal, it was clear that the team was living for the day. And I think that all this time before the match, they had no other thoughts in their minds. And you could see that during the game. One more thing: people usually talk about Turkish fans – but what our stadium did today was so much cooler! I’ve seen a lot, but today everything was just magical, fantastic, elegant and beautiful. Thanks a million to the fans! Because of their support, it felt like there was at least eight players in the team. The Golden Set did make me worry a little. We made all possible replacements in it, and they all worked. And we did everything we could about the tactics. At the same time, it was evident that Galatasaray was also ready for the Golden Set from the first minutes. They knew, for example, about today’s result of Yenisei, who lost in the Golden Set 13-15 after winning the return match with Olympiacos.”
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