07/04/2015 23:32
Dinamo MOSCOW cement Russian supremacy with away win in first round of CEV Cup finals
2015 CEV Volleyball Cup - Men
Trento, Italy, April 7, 2015. A perfect night for Russia’s Volleyball family continued also in Trento where Dinamo MOSCOW edged past hosts Energy T.I. Diatec TRENTINO in four close sets (25-23, 23-25, 25-22, 25-21) to get the right advantage for the ‘big finale’ of the 2015 CEV Volleyball Cup – Men which is coming up this Saturday, April 11, in Russia’s capital at 6pm local time. Dinamo already won that trophy back in 2012 when they saw off Poland’s Asseco Resovia RZESZOW in two closely contested final matches.
3,256 fans were upset on Tuesday night as Dinamo MOSCOW edged past TRENTINO in what was the first home loss for the local heroes since April 13, 2014. The local mentor Radostin Stoytchev confirmed the usual starting line-up, with Lukasz Zygadlo as setter, opposite Martin Nemec, outside spikers Matey Kaziyski and Filippo Lanza, middle blockers Emanuele Birarelli and Sebastian Solé, and libero Massimo Colaci. The opponents from Dinamo played very aggressive right from the beginning of the first set (6:8 and 10:14). TRENTINO almost closed their deficit at 19:20 with two blocks of Solé and a mistake of Pavel Kruglov. The final section of this set was played point for point and Sergey Grankin (pictured) and Yury Berezhko brought it all to an end at 23-25 for Dinamo.
Inspired by almost 3,300 supporters TRENTINO fought their way back in the second set and flipped the tables around by the first technical time-out. Thanks to some mistakes of the Muscovites the hosts took the lead at 15:13 with a quick hit of Birarelli and an attack of Kaziyski. Still Dinamo could claw back and draw level at 23 all before TRENTINO finished it off with a point scored by Birarelli (25-23) to restore the balance in the game.
In the third set the score remained very close up to 9 all but things changed with Dinamo edging ahead at the second technical time-out (12:16). After that Stoychev replaced Zygadlo with young setter Simone Giannelli but the Russians continued to play with high intensity and eventually held on to their lead to close it out at 22-25.
In the fourth section of the game, setter Giannelli was again lined up for Zygadlo. This set was played point for point (13:13), but TRENTINO seemed to lose a bit of concentration. Although the Russians jumped away at 22:19 the hosts were able to cut their deficit to a minimum (22:21) for a breath-taking final, delighting the fans with spectacular defence actions and long rallies. This set was finally sealed by Dinamo MOSCOW with a block of their setter Sergey Grankin (21-25).
Best scorer of the match was Pavel Kruglov with an amazing total of 26 points and 61% of efficiency in attack; on the home side remarkable were the performances of outside spiker Matey Kaziyski and opposite Martin Nemec, who tallied up 18 and 15, respectively.
“Dinamo showed its superiority in block as in defence. I think we played below our standards, especially in attack. We could not react properly when we were put under pressure. In the third set we really began to make many mistakes, facilitating the work of our opponents that of course did not need any help. But the winner has not been revealed yet, let’s see what happens in Russia,” stated local coach Radostin Stoytchev.
“We were very efficient in block and defence, but our success also comes from a good performance in reception. It was not easy at all coming to Trento, but we are halfway on the path to the victory. Now we are expecting a tough task at home, but of course we are aware of our advantage after tonight’s victory,” said the American middle blocker of Dinamo MOSCOW, Maxwell Holt.
TRENTINO now hopes for a miracle. In Moscow the Italians must win the return game by 3-0 or 3-1 and then go for the golden set.
Click here for more info including detailed stats of the match
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