01/03/2017 23:50
Russians confirm second place in Pool A after hard-fought five-setter
2017 CEV Volleyball Champions League - Men
Maaseik, Belgium, March 1, 2017. In the last game of Pool A, Noliko MAASEIK pushed the already qualified team of Dinamo MOSCOW to the limit in a hard-fought five setter, before losing 2-3 (22-25, 25-18, 30-28, 18-25, 12-15). For the Belgians the European journey is over, while the Russians can look forward to the Playoffs.
With all their experience, setter Sergey Grankin and spiker Yury Berezhko wiped out a 16-12 lead for the home team to secure a comfortable 25-22 win for Dinamo MOSCOW in the first set.
Noliko did not even think about surrendering and Nicolas Bruno created a six-point lead in the second set. Kamil Rychlicki pulled it through to a comfortable 25-18 equaliser.
Set three turned out into a thriller. Pavel Kruglov and Alexander Volkov cancelled a three-point gap created by Martijn Colson for 22-19. However, the Russians did not succeed in converting one of their five set points. Eventually, Bruno had the upper hand with a service winner for 30-28.
The Muscovites took it to a tiebreak after their clear dominance in the fourth set, yet they needed an extra effort, since they could break the local resistance only after 11-all (15-12).
Pavel Kruglov, player of Dinamo MOSCOW: “Eight years ago I already beat Maaseik here in Belgium with Dinamo. However, this time they gave us a lot of resistance. They raised their level in comparison to the game we played in Moscow. We are happy to be through to the Playoffs. I hope we don’t meet another Russian team, because that would be a very tough draw.”
Branislav Skladany, setter of Noliko MAASEIK: “For three and a half sets, we really played very well. However, in the end we were not able to keep up with the Russian power. Yet, we did a good job in our Champions League campaign. We performed really well in four of our six matches. Especially for our young players, this was a good school.”
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