Translated material
Lost face
Milkovich's injury made Dynamo's path to victory easier
The second round of the volleyball Champions League playoffs has begun. In the men's and women's tournaments, Russia has one team left - the capital's Dynamo and Zarechye-Odintsovo, respectively. Yesterday, the “blue and white” beat the Greek “Olympiacos” from Piraeus on their court in the first match of the “Round of Six” - 3:1 (25:16, 22:25, 25:22, 25:22). Girls from the Moscow region are hosting the Turkish Fenerbahçe today, for which the main scorer of the Russian national team, Ekaterina Gamova, plays. This season, the Istanbul club won all 28 official matches held in the domestic and international arena.Dynamo and Olympiacos played in the same quartet in the group stage and shared the points - 3:1 in Moscow and 2:3 in Hellas. The rivalry between representatives of Russia and Greece continued in the Round of Twelve. The “blue and white” twice defeated the Athens “Panathinaikos” (3:0 and 3:2), but “Olympiacos” knocked out the current champion of our country and the current leader of the Super League, the Kazan “Zenith” (3:1 and 2:3) . The Muscovites approached their new meeting with the Piraeus team on an upswing; after an indistinct first half of the regular season, head coach Yuri Cherednik’s charges put together a streak of six wins in a row. In addition to other factors, the transformation of the “blue and white” can also be associated with the fact that in the position of the main diagonal, the most experienced Roman Yakovlev replaced the volleyball player of the Russian national team Semyon Poltavsky, who had not shown his best game for a long time.
In the opening game of yesterday's match, the hosts immediately stunned the opponent with the power of their serves. Even before the first technical break, the Muscovites scored three aces - this was done by setter Sergei Grankin and twice by Brazilian finisher Dante, who lingered on the service line for a long time. Dynamo also operated successfully on the block, blocking almost all Olympiacos attacks. The guests were frankly crushed in this game - the intermediate score of 13:3 is rarely seen in matches at this level.
But in the next set the hosts were always playing catch-up. The Piraeus know how to take a punch. Gradually, the team's main scorer, Serbian Ivan Miljkovic, began to play out, and he scored 34 points in the last round of the Greek championship. Dynamo's deficit was measured by four or five goals; at the end of the set, thanks to the successful actions of Alexander Volkov, the chase was almost crowned with success. Poltavsky, who replaced Yakovlev for a short time, let him down, ruining his serve when the score was 22:24.
Despite the weak play of the Brazilian Caldeira, the guests continued to fight on equal terms. In the tense ending of the third game, everything was decided by the justified risk of Grankin, who continued to execute a power serve. First, the poorly unprepared attack of Olympiacos ran into Dynamo’s block, and then the Piraeus were completely unable to process the ball, fired as if from a sling by our setter.
It is difficult to predict how the further struggle would have developed if it had not been for Milkovich’s injury. who broke his face in a collision with a partner. At the beginning of the fourth game, he was forced to leave the hall altogether. Olympiacos has significantly lost the power of its attacks, the team has lost confidence, because there is no and cannot be a full-fledged replacement for the Serb. The final score of 3:1 probably satisfied both teams to some extent. The chances of reaching the Final Four remain equal. In a week in Greece everything will actually start all over again.
The return matches of the “challenge round” of the CEV Cup were also held on Wednesday. The teams that moved into this tournament from the Champions League played away yesterday. Iskra in Odintsovo met with the French Tour, having won an away victory a week ago (3:2). The showdown again dragged on until the tiebreaker, but there was no extra set. Iskra again took over - 3:2 (22:25, 25:19, 28:30, 25:17, 15:9).