17/12/2020 20:30
Dinamo and MONTPELLIER through to #CEVCupM semis in emphatic style
CEV Volleyball Cup 2021 - Men
Luxembourg, December 17, 2020. Dinamo MOSCOW of Russia and MONTPELLIER Castelnau UC of France (pictured) will be locking horns in the semis of the men’s CEV Volleyball Cup 2021 after these teams easily claimed their respective quarterfinal matches on Thursday. Later in the evening, VC Greenyard MAASEIK of Belgium needed five sets to edge past hosts CV Guaguas in Las Palmas and secure the right to play Zenit SAINT PETERSBURG in the semis.
Dinamo MOSCOW were on a class of their own in the matchup with C.S.M. Arcada GALATI of Romania (25-15, 25-18, 25-16), another team that had started this season in the early rounds of the CEV Champions League Volley. Dinamo certainly enjoyed playing before some of their fans, with the new Dynamo Volleyball Arena hosting some 500 supporters as per the current rules in place in Russia (25% of the total capacity). The team coached by Konstantin Brianskii was in full control, with the visitors from Romania able to put up more of a fight only in the early stages of the second set. Tsvetan Sokolov top scored for the winners with 17 points, including two aces, followed by Yaroslav Podlesnykh, who recorded 12 points, including three blocks.
Tsvetan Sokolov top scored for Dinamo MOSCOW in their 3-0 shutout of C.S.M. Arcada GALATI
Konstantin Brianskii, head coach of Dinamo: “I am very happy with this victory and I wish to share this joy with all of Dinamo’s fans. We played a very good match and we performed better than our opponent did in all aspects of the game. We are slowly finding back our shape after the period of quarantine. In the next couple of weeks we will be playing three, four matches against some of the top teams in the Russian Superleague.”
The first set of the matchup between MONTPELLIER Castelnau UC and OK Nis NIS was a close affair, before the hosts from France broke away with a series of good spikes and serves. OK Nis NIS tried to put up a fight but the home side remained focussed to seal a 25-22 win. The Serbian team played very aggressively at the beginning of the second set, but MONTPELLIER did not lose composure and actually looked even more dominant than before, sweeping both the second and third sets (25-19, 25-14) to secure their spot in the semis.
Javier Augusto Gonzalez Paton, captain of MONTPELLIER Castelnau UC: “We are very happy with this victory and we hope to continue the same way regardless of which team we will be playing in the semi-finals. We must be ready to fight.”
Dragan Svetozarevic, head coach of OK Nis NIS: “We are disappointed with the result but happy with the fact that we fought from start to end against a strong team such as MONTPELLIER. I wish to thank those involved in the organisation of these matches. We remain positive, travel home and resume training for the rest of the season.”
The players and coaching staff of VC Greenyard MAASEIK celebrate their 3-2 victory in Las Palmas
VC Greenyard MAASEIK complete the grid for the semis after a hard-fought tiebreak victory over hosts CV Guaguas LAS PALMAS. The hosts delivered a very solid performance to claim a 25-23 win in the first set, much to the delight of the almost 400 fans in attendance. However, Greenyard MAASEIK responded swiftly, levelling the match (25-20) before taking the third set as well (25-23). The Belgian block was working especially well at this stage of the match; however, CV Guaguas LAS PALMAS rose to the occasion and eventually called for a tiebreak after taking the fourth set 25-19. MAASEIK caught a good start to the deciding set, but the hosts fought back to tie the score. However, too many mistakes proved costly for Guaguas, with VC Greeynard MAASEIK finishing strongly (15-10) to secure their spot in the semis where they will be playing Zenit SAINT PETERSBURG of Russia.
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