17/02/2015 21:04
Halkbank ANKARA dethrone Belogorie after golden set win to claim first spot in Playoffs 6
2015 CEV DenizBank Volleyball Champions League - Men
Belgorod, Russia, February 17, 2015. Turkey’s Halkbank ANKARA got their sweet revenge after losing last year’s final match of the CEV DenizBank Volleyball Champions League – Men edging past 2014 gold medallists Belogorie BELGOROD at the golden set to claim the first spot in the Playoffs 6 and make it one step closer to the Final Four tournament that is due to take place on March 28-29 in Berlin, Germany. After winning the first round of the Playoffs 12 played last week in Turkey’s capital by 3:1, Halkbank lost the return match by the same score (25-14, 17-25, 16-25, 22-25) but regrouped to win the golden set (15-11) and get the right to continue their campaign in Europe’s elite competition.
Though they had lost the first round of this match up by making a huge number of mistakes, the reigning club world champions of Belogorie BELGOROD were still seen as the pre-favourite side going into this second remake of the 2014 final. However, things did not start quite the right way for the Russian Lions who somehow continued with their shaky performance from last week making a series of mistakes both at spiking and blocking. Belogorie BELGOROD could nevertheless turn the tide as they regrouped to sweep three set in a row by displaying the cannon serves they are known for. The Russians also raised their block in such way that the spikers of Halkbank had to take many risks to find a way through such impenetrable wall and it became almost impossible for ANKARA to score. This trend reached its climax in the third set where Belogorie’s advantage moved up to 11 points at a certain stage.
It was then down to the golden set to determine who would advance to the Playoffs 6. Halkbank played a perfect game here whilst Belogorie could not quite find a way to stretch the momentum they had shown in the previous sets. The match came to an end as the Bulgarian opposite of Halkbank, Tsvetan Sokolov, found a way through a Russian double block for the final 15-11. Sokolov top scored in the match with 24 points followed by his teammate Osmany Juantorena with 22. Sergey Tetyukhin and Dmitriy Muserskiy amassed 21 points each for Belogorie in their losing effort.
The head coach of Belogorie, Gennady Shipulin, was not happy at all and said it was not easy to play while trying to chase your opponent. “Some tactics we tried out with a few substitutions did not bring the desired effect tonight,” he said. “And of course the Turkish team performed really well and played with a lot of power. I wish now the best of luck to our compatriots of Zenit KAZAN and Lokomotiv NOVOSIBIRSK in this competition. We will turn our focus to the Russian Superleague.”
The mentor of Halkbank, Lorenzo Bernardi, was evidently in a different mood: “We played much worse than Belogorie in the second, third and fourth sets. However, I am proud of my players who could change the course of the game in the golden set. Before the match I told them that we should expect a long and difficult game and that we had to play smart. We needed to wait for our chance to win and they seized it in the golden set. Now we need to start thinking about the next round but we already know what we have to work on.”
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