Russia claims 3-0 win over Tunisia at the 2012 London Olympics – Volleyball News
Men’s teams from Russia and Tunisia came into contest at the Earls Court on Thursday. The former team proved to be better and marched away with 3-0 (25-21, 25-15, 25-23) victory.
World No. 2 Russia made a great comeback after losing to Brazil in the second match of the tournament. Tunisia put up good struggled in the match but ended on the losing side. It was third straight loss for Tunisia in the tournament. Russia took 78 minutes
to beat the competitors.
Russia was supposedly the better team in the match. However, Tunisia did not give an easy time to rival side. Tunisian Nagga came up with convincing attacks and perfectly landed his shots in Russian half. Russia led the scores, but Tunisia remained hand-in-hand
and regularly added points. Opening set of the match ended at 25-21, while Tunisia suffered the set-back with a deficit of only four points.
Second set was totally dominated by the Russia as they found a great rhythm and tone after claiming the opening stanza. Tunisians seemed to have lost form in the second set and ended with only 15 points. Russia moved to 2-0 by winning second set of the match.
Tunisia staged a good fight with Russia in the third frame, but still could not manage to claim better status. Russia closed the affair in three sets and declared match victory.
Russia’s Maxim Mikhaylov was named the top-scorer of the match. He totalled match-high 15 points via 11 spikes, 2 blocks, and two serve aces. He also emerged as the only Russian player with double digits in the match. Nikolay Apalikov and Sergey Tetyukhin
did well, but finished with 9 and 8 points respectively.
Hamza Nagga of Tunisia staged a great battle with Russian blockers. He hit exquisite shots and claimed team-high 14 points.
Winning Captain Taras Khtey disclosed his thoughts after the match. He stated: “We may have had too many mistakes on service. We only played as well as they allowed us to play, but we can play better. As the tournament goes on, we have to play better. We
can tell the USA are playing really well and we will need to improve as the tournament goes on.”
“Going forward the aim is to play at our best for the USA match. There are a few elements we need to work on. We lost a few points on serve, so that is our key thing to improve. Then, we will be ready,” said Russian player Yury Berezhko.
Russia will play its next match against USA on Saturday, while Tunisia will try its luck against team from Germany.
Tags: