Last week, Lokomotiv Novosibirsk lost the second match of the Russian Championship playoffs to Dynamo Moscow and ended the fight for medals in the Russian Super League. All that remained was to focus on the Champions League, where the players Plamena Konstantinov A lot has worked out this season. The irony is that in the opening match of the “round of 12” with the Belgian “Noliko”, the Novosibirsk coaching staff gave a rest to a number of the main players, hoping to leave strength for the confrontation with “Dynamo”. The plan didn't work out. Lokomotiv lost to both the Muscovites and the Belgians.
In Novosibirsk, Konstantinov’s team, which lost in Belgium with a score of 0:3, had to solve a difficult problem. They essentially had no room for error. Lokomotiv also faced very controversial refereeing decisions in the away match, which directly affected the result. Surely this was an additional motivation for the Novosibirsk volleyball players, who wanted to respond to injustice with a confident victory. The bookmakers had no doubt that Lokomotiv would win. Everything seemed to allow us to hope for a favorable outcome.
Buy glasses, judge! Lokomotiv's match in the Champions League ended in scandal
Lokomotiv was inferior in game to Noliko. But the match was ended not by the Belgians’ attack, but by an obvious mistake by the referees, a scandal and the removal of the Lokomotiv coach.
“Noliko” was immediately preparing for the “golden set”?
Lokomotiv started the first set a little more confidently than their opponents. Many attacks reached the floor. He looked good when he returned to the team a few weeks ago Marcus Nilsson. At the same time, the hosts went into the first technical break with a slight advantage in the score – 8:7. But after a pause in the serve Arslana Ekshi Lokomotiv made a decisive breakthrough in the first game. The Novosibirsk team scored eight points in a row, and the numbers on the scoreboard turned 8:8 into 16:8 by the second technical timeout. There was no doubt that Konstantinov’s team would confidently take the set to victory.
“Noliko” seemed to be preparing for the “golden set”. It looked like the Belgians were mentally prepared to give up the first three games to a more powerful opponent. They took risks where they could have played more reliably, tried various tactical schemes. Having a handicap of three sets, the Belgians could easily afford it. But should this have worried Lokomotiv, which was moving towards its goal? 25:18 – the result of the first game, where Noliko had no chance to grab the result.
Everything according to the script
At the beginning of the second set, Noliko tried to impose its game on Lokomotiv and even took the lead for some time. But by the first technical break in the second game, the Novosibirsk team had regained the lead – 8:6. Continued to attack successfully Marcus Nilsson, Ilyas Kurkaev marked a cool attack with the first tempo. Several mistakes by the Belgians on serve also helped. After a pause Alexey Rodichev and twice Kurkaev successfully blocked the attacks of the Noliko volleyball players, which forced the head coach of the guests Joel Banks take a time out.
Did not help. Lokomotiv achieved a comfortable four-point advantage by the second technical break – 16:12. At the same time, I couldn’t shake the feeling that “Noliko” was not giving his all, leaving a reserve of strength for the decisive moment in the match. To some extent, this also affected the actions of the Novosibirsk residents, who also understood everything perfectly and sometimes allowed themselves a moment of relaxation. Thanks to this, the Belgians came within one point of the hosts – 16:17. Konstantinov’s team immediately improved and brought the second game to victory – 25:22.
Goodbye, Moscow! Dynamo said goodbye to the Champions League
Novosibirsk Lokomotiv saved the capital's Dynamo from the need to calculate tournament layouts by defeating them in a tiebreaker.
Nerves, nerves, nerves
The third set began according to the usual scenario - “Noliko” leads the score, and then “Lokomotiv” gradually adds and achieves an advantage in its favor. The Novosibirsk team went into the first technical break in this game with a two-point advantage. It seemed that everything would turn out well for the hosts this time too, but Noliko had a different opinion on this matter. After the second technical timeout, the guests seized the initiative and quite unexpectedly brought the third set to victory - 25:19. Thus, Lokomotiv lost their last right to make a mistake. If Konstantinov’s team wanted to go further, then they had to gather here and now. There was simply no other chance.
The Noliko volleyball players also understood this, feeling the smell of victory. The fourth set was a tense fight, where every point scored was of great importance. Neither team managed to create a comfortable lead. Lokomotiv tried very hard, but many attacks were given to Konstantinov’s players with great difficulty. And yet, at the very end, the Novosibirsk team, through incredible efforts, achieved success in this game – 26:24. The audience was treated to a “golden set”.
The culmination of the confrontation between the Russian and Belgian clubs turned out just right. Lokomotiv tried to create at least some kind of lead, but for the time being the guests found the strength to return to the game. But in the end they failed. The Novosibirsk team made a decisive acceleration exactly when it was necessary, although even here the judges managed to make an ambiguous decision.
The “Golden Set” ended with the victory of Konstantinov’s team with a score of 15:12. Lokomotiv continues its excellent European campaign and has already reached the “round of six” in the Champions League, although it is worth admitting that certain questions remain for the “railwaymen” regarding the game.
VC Zenit-Kazan once again confirmed its status as the strongest team on the continent. The Russians won their third consecutive gold in the 2017 European Volleyball Champions League (men). The final of the Four tournament was held for volleyball players in six games. In the match for first place, Zenit won against Sir Sikoma Colussi (Perugia, Italy) 3-0 (25-15, 25-23, 25-14). In total, the Russian club has won the status of European champion five times: 2008, 2012, 2015, 2016, 2017.
The hosts of the CEV Champions League Final Four looked very good at the start of the first set. They managed to go one step ahead of the Russians. A request for a replay from Lorenzo Bernardi did not allow Alexander Atanasevich's ace to go to waste. With the score 10-7 in favor of Sir Sikoma Kolussi, Zenit won three draws in a row and leveled the score. Then the Zenit-Kazan players scored point after point, while the Italians froze at 13. The double and triple block of the Russians turned out to be impenetrable, impenetrable and impenetrable. But Maxim Mikhailov broke through the hosts’ block on the very first control ball.
Both teams could not break away from their opponents during the second game. Atanasevich brought the score to 20-19 with another ace. Zenit equalized the score. Atanasevich again corrected the score to +1, this time with an attack. "Sir Sikoma Colussi" once again successfully used the replay request. And yet the outcome of the game was decided by Mikhailov’s attack.
In the third game, the Russian squad was two steps ahead of their opponent. After the first technical break, which left the teams with a score of 8-6, Wilfredo Leon brought the team four points in a row from the service line. Zenit became much closer to victory. The Russians' game was running as if on rails, but "Sir Sikoma Kolussi" did not have enough fire to adhere to the given rhythm. As a result, Zenit-Kazan received another gold medal in the largest club tournament in Europe.
“Frankly, there are no secrets in our success”, - said Vladimir Alekno, coach of Zenit-Kazan. – “Here and now our club is incredibly well organized and has the resources to attract the best players in the world. This is the basis of our success. I want to say that it is not always easy for volleyball players and coaching staff to cope with pressure, because incredibly much is expected of us, everyone expects us to win. Our fans and management perceive second place as a kind of failure, so we are always under pressure. And, of course, I am pleased with the result and the gold medal.".
“Yes, I agree, now we are the team that wins", said the finisher Matthew Anderson. – “At least in Europe. We still have to win the Club World Cup and that will be our next goal."
Emanuele Birarelli, captain of Sir Sikoma Kolussi, did not enter the court due to injury. He outlined the situation very briefly: “I think you saw for yourself that they were too strong for us. This is exactly what we should say about today’s game.”.
Dream Team of the Final Four of the CEV Champions League in volleyball 2017 (men):
MVP
– Maxim Mikhailov(Zenit-Kazan)
Finishers
– Wilfredo Leon(“Zenit-Kazan”) and Ivan Zaitsev("Ser Sikoma Colussi")
Center blockers
– Marko Podrascanin("Sir Sikoma Colussi") and Artyom Volvich(Zenit-Kazan)
Binder
– Luciano de Cecco("Ser Sikoma Colussi")
Diagonal
– Alexander Atanasyevich("Ser Sikoma Colussi")
Libero
– Zhenya Grebennikov("Ser Sikoma Colussi")
Nova almost pulled off a surprise in Kazan, Poletaev beat Belogorye, Dynamo avenged the Champions League, and St. Petersburg made history.
Without exception, all the matches of the first day of the quarterfinals in the men's Super League turned out to be intriguing. Don't look at the fact that none of them went to the fifth set. In four cities of Russia, spectators saw great volleyball, and before the return matches, none of the teams that won the day before can be sure of their passage further through the bracket. Even Zenit Kazan.
But “Nova” is not so simple
On paper, the Kazan team looked like the undisputed favorites in the confrontation with Novaya. Of course, Konstantin Bryansky’s team had a brilliant finish to the regular season, thanks to which they jumped on the bandwagon of the playoff train. But the club from Kazan is a completely different level, which no one in the world can match at the moment. However, Nova was not going to give up ahead of time and gave a real fight to Zenit away.
In the first set, Nova held the advantage for a long time. Traditionally, diagonal Roman Shkulevicius looked great in attack. When the score became 20:16 in favor of the guests, it seemed that the first game would remain theirs, but Zenit once again proved that it was ready to improve in any difficult situation. Verbov twice hit crazy balls in defense with the score 23:23 and helped earn his team the first set point. But “Nova” has Shkulyachivicius, who played as many as four set points. And yet, Kazan put the finishing touches on the guests and won the first game - 30:28. “Zenit” (Kazan) - “Nova” (Novokuibyshevsk) - 3:1 (30:28, 26:28, 25:18, 25:14) Many teams would have broken down psychologically after this. “Nova,” on the contrary, got even more angry and won the second set in another crazy ending with a score of 28:26. If the first and eighth teams of the Russian championship are killed like this, it means that everything is not so bad in our volleyball. Unfortunately for Nova fans, the Kazan team then seized the initiative and achieved success in the third and fourth games. In any case, Bryansky’s charges proved that Vladimir Alekno and company should not expect an easy life in this confrontation. The return meeting promises to be no less hot.
"Dynamo" won back for the Champions League
It so happened that this season Dynamo Moscow and Lokomotiv Novosibirsk have already met four times. The matches in the Russian Championship were supplemented by two games in the Champions League, where the Novosibirsk team beat the Muscovites both times, depriving Boris Kolchin’s team of the opportunity to advance to the next round. But the Champions League and the Super League are different tournaments, as Captain Obvious would say. In the Russian Championship, Dynamo looked stronger. The Muscovites managed to carry this over to the first match of the quarterfinals. After a fairly confident victory in the first set, Dynamo then gave the end of the second set, allowing Lokomotiv to level the score in the game.
“Dynamo” (Moscow) – “Lokomotiv” (Novosibirsk) - 3:1 (25:20, 23:25, 26:24, 25:18) The third set was key. At the beginning of the match, the hosts pulled away from their opponents by three points - 7:4. However, they could not maintain their advantage. The Novosibirsk team first leveled the situation, and by the second technical break they took the lead - 16:15. Everything was again decided in the end, where at a key moment Antipkin’s block allowed Dynamo to win the set - 26:24. It is interesting that in all the matches this season between these rivals, the winner of the third game then won the entire match. Kolchin's team decided to honor traditions - 25:18 at the end of the fourth set and a crucial victory in the first match of the quarterfinals. True, you can rest assured that Plamen Konstantinov will set Lokomotiv up for the return match in such a way that Dynamo will have a very difficult time in Novosibirsk.
Is the victory of Kuzbass a sensation or not?
In Belgorod, the second and seventh teams of the league met in the quarter finals. In fact, in the confrontation between Belogorye and Kuzbass, everything was far from so obvious. Firstly, the teams exchanged victories at the preliminary stage, and in the “Final Four” of the Russian Cup, the Kemerovo team completely destroyed Belogorye in three sets, and they did it on enemy territory. So in the playoffs, the coaching staff of the Belgorod club could not find the key to the unyielding team of Tuomas Sammelvuo. According to tradition, Viktor Poletaev, who scored 21 points, lit up the guests. In many ways, it was his inspired play that baffled the Belogorye volleyball players over and over again.
“Belogorye” (Belgorod) - “Kuzbass” (Kemerovo) - 0:3 (22:25, 19:25, 25:27) The hosts, reinforced by one of the leaders of Novosibirsk Lokomotiv Georg Groser shortly before the start of the playoffs, We couldn't find our game. A desperate chase in the first set was unsuccessful. The second game was almost entirely dictated by Kuzbass. And only in the third set did Belogorye have a real chance to turn the tide of the fight. The hosts led with a score of 25:24, but Poletaev’s attack and ace first brought the Kemerovo team ahead by one point, and then Dmitry Musersky attacked into touch, which put an end to this match - 27:25 in the set and 3:0 in the match in favor of “ Kuzbass". Belgorod residents are now on the brink of an abyss, given how well Sammelvuo’s team plays in their home country.
St. Petersburg's historic victory
In Novy Urengoy, Fakel hosted Zenit from St. Petersburg - a team that had a great season from scratch and, apparently, is not going to stop there. Alexander Klimkin’s team began preparing for this match in the last round of the regular season, when they gave the main squad a rest in the game against their Kazan teammates. Obviously, this tactic was justified. The St. Petersburg team looked more confident, accurate and powerful in the first playoff match. In each of the three sets played, “Fakel” at some point had a real chance to seize the initiative, but failed to take advantage of any of them.
“Fakel” (Novy Urengoy) - “Zenit” (St. Petersburg) - 0:3 (22:25, 19:25, 20:25) After the end of the meeting, “Fakel” coach Camillo Plachi admitted that his volleyball players were experiencing too much pressure, performing at home in front of his native audience. However, this seems like a weak excuse, since absolutely all teams that make it to the playoffs experience this pressure. Placha and the company have exactly a week to correct the situation and make sure that the series does not end in St. Petersburg.
