Zenit Kazan maintains perfect run in prelims of European Champions League
The Russian club team, Zenit Kazan, successfully extended its winning streak to three matches in the on-going Prelims of the 2012 CEV Champions League. In their last match on Wednesday, December 14, they overpowered Belgian rookie Euphony ASSE-LENNIK and
posted 3-0 (25-21, 25-21, 25-18) and added a third victory to their count.
The Belgian team staged a good fight but failed to overcome the hosts. They relied on Dutch opposite Robin Overbeeke, who staged good action on the net but could not earn victory for his team. Nonetheless,
he topped all the scorers with 13 points, while Apalikov of Zenit Kazan followed him with 12 points in the match.
First set
The first set of the match continued for 22 minutes. The opening phase was full of back-to-back attacks from both sides, while the score went up quickly. The home squad led the scores for a better time in the first set and controlled the operations.
On top of it, the Saint Petersburg arena in Kazan city had strong presence of local fans, which enticed the team to hold off the visitors for a 25-21 victory in the first set.
Second set
The next set unfolded the same story. Kazan picked up an early lead at 3-2 before Euphony went up by a one-point advantage (4-3). Nikolay Apalikov stamped a series of massive blocks and dismissed the opponents’ attack attempts, in order to save points.
Ironically, it did not put a scare on the Rookie Belgium and they continued with the same zeal. They formed good combos and jumped on every little opportunity to score points. They rallied from 7-6 to 11-10 and kept the game in their hand. Ultimately, Russia
came back on track with a 12-11 lead. These couple of points enabled Russia to get their real form back. From that point onward, they led all the way and finished the second set with an identical score of 25-21.
Third set
Despite giving their best performance in the second set, the Euphony could not overcome Kazan. They seemed visibly exhausted in the third set and slumped furhter. Zenit Kazan maintained its lead from start to end and claimed victory in 71 minutes.
Zenit Kazan handed over the straight sets defeat to Euphony but the coach Vladimir Alekno was not happy about the many mistakes of his players. He stated: “It looks like our national team players are completely exhausted after the World Cup” says Zenit
head coach Vladimir Alekno. “This may be the reason for the many mistakes we saw from the serving zone”.
On contrary, the Belgian mentor Marko Klok remained calm and passed on satisfactory comments. He said:
“I am quite satisfied even though it is a pity that we did not exploit all the chances we had during this match. However, we still are in contention for making it to the Playoffs 12.”
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