18/11/2015 21:45
Zenit KAZAN rout Budvanska Rivijera BUDVA even without their leader Leon
2016 CEV DenizBank Volleyball Champions League - Men
Kazan, Russia, November 18, 2015. Zenit KAZAN’s win over Montenegro’s Budvanska Rivijera BUDVA was straight, in every sense. The head coach of the Russian national champions and 2015 CEV DenizBank Volleyball Champions League gold medallists, Vladimir Alekno experimented with his line-up and gave some rest to the undisputed team leader Wilfredo Leon but this didn’t prevent the Tatars from winning the match in three sets (25-20, 25-15, 25-19) to further cement their leadership in Pool D with six full points after two rounds of action.
Alexey Spiridonov of Zenit KAZAN played extremely well in the first set. His precise attacks helped the team approach the finish line with a solid advantage (20:14) and finally seal the deal at 25-20.
At the beginning of the second set Ukrainian spiker Bogdan Olefir took the lead in the offensive game of BUDVA and the visitors opened the period with three straight points. However, soon after that the Montenegrin team started having problems in reception. Maxim Mikhailov recorded a series of hard serves and wrapped up three aces to make it 16:8 and pave the way for a landslide 25-15 set win.
The Bulgarian-born opposite of BUDVA Venelin Kadankov who had showed very low efficiency in attack after two sets was sent to the bench. His Russian counterpart Mikhailov was also replaced but because of a different reason – to get some well-deserved rest but he nevertheless topped the scorers’ chart of the match in the end with 12 points.
At the beginning of the third set Victor Poletaev performed well for the home side and contributed to a starting strike of Zenit KAZAN (11:5). Then Alexey Kuleshov stood out at the centre – and the set was quickly over at 25-19 and with it also the match came to an end.
“The level of our opponent allowed me to use almost all the players on our roster. I’m happy with the performance of Victor Poletaev, and our middle blockers did also very well,” said the head coach of Zenit KAZAN, Vladimir Alekno.
“We played against the reigning champions so I’m not surprised at the result. However, I am not satisfied with some aspects of my team’s performance. I asked my team to play wiser but it didn’t always go this way. Moreover, we didn’t manage to do well in reception,” concluded the mentor of Budvanska Rivijera BUDVA, 2000 Olympic champion Slobodan Boskan.
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