In the home match of the 5th round of the Champions League group stage, Dynamo-Ak Bars lost in three sets to the Turkish Fenerbahçe Opet.

 

The 5th tour match between Dinamo-AkBars and Fenerbahçe was postponed due to a COVID-19 quarantine of the Turkish team. However, the Russians must have spent more time without volleyball, as a couple of the Russian Championship games were canceled for the same reason.

 

1st set. The Turkish guests took a magnificent start by Fedorovtseva’s serve and Lazareva’s attacks – 2:7. However, the Russians quickly caught up and even rushed forward – 11:10. But after Fedorovtseva went to the front line, Fenerbahçe regained leadership – 13:15 after Arina’s several crippling attacks. The Turkish block worked successfully, too – 16:20. Another smashing hit by Fedorovtseva finished the first set.

 

2nd set. The next set started better for Dinamo – 13:10. The hosts fatefully dismissed Melissa Vargas from a return, actually sending her to the bench. But after a responce ace from Fedorovtseva the score got even – 13:13. In the fight that followed, the Turkish players gradually gained the upper hand – 18:22 after Lazareva’s flick. In the ending, the struggle became a bit more strained, but the second set was won by the guests too.

 

3rd set. The Russian continued fighting – 7:7. But the vigor of the attacks of the two Russian players from the Turkish team behind the net seemed not to decrease a bit, despite the time which had passed since the beginning of the match – 9:14 after Fedorovtseva’s attack. Meanwhile the hosts got rather tired and started making mistakes – 16:19 after Koroleva’s serve into the net. However, the guests soon started making mistakes too – 18:20. Nevertheless, Fenerbahçe kept leadership and soon was celebrating a victory.

Irina Koroleva, captain of Dinamo-Ak Bars:

- Everyone has seen the result… No doubt, we fought. But this is not the result, not the game that we or our spectators would like to see. Certainly, one may always find some excuses: we have had a long pause. But speaking specifically about the game, today our rivals were stronger. They defeated us with the forced serves – we absolutely failed to cope with the return. And then it went on: we failed to cope with their block, we did not manage to complicate our serve… hence the result.

 

Zoran Terzić, Headcoach of Fenerbahçe Opet:

- I believe both Dinamo-AkBars and Fenerbahçe have not shown their best game today. Because both you and we have had a long period without playing. However, we served very well today. Also, we played successfully in blocks and defense, and were very effective in the makeup game. That is why we have won. Although, I assumed today’s game would be as hard as in Istanbul.

 

Arina Fedorovtseva, player of Fenerbahçe Opet:

- We are very glad to win, to show a good level of playing. But in the beginning there were somewhat many mistakes. When we removed them, it started to be much easier. We were very much tuned up to win. The main thing was to remove all the emotions. Due to the experience we gained in the first match in Istanbul, we managed to do that. In general, we are satisfied with the result.

 

Champions League. 4th round. Group D. 5th tour.

Dinamo Ak-Bars KAZAN – Fenerbahçe Opet ISTANBUL - 0:3 (20:25, 22:25, 19:25)

11 February. Russia. Kazan. Volleyball Center “Sankt-Peterburg”

Referee: Simonovic V. (Switzerland). Match time: 1.20 (27+28+25).

Dinamo: Lazarenko (8), Koroleva – C (7), Fabris (5), Bricio (11), Kadochkina (9), Vetrova (3) – starting line-up, Podkopaeva (libero), Lazareva Е.

Fenerbahçe: Lazareva А. (20), Fedorovtseva (21), Erdem – C (5), Popovic, Ünal (1), Vargas (6) – starting line-up, Örge (libero), Babat (2), Ismailoglu (3). 

Points – 61:75, serve – 4:5, spike – 32(38%):47(52%), block – 7:6, reception – 43%:31%, errors – 22:20.
(Statistics by “Dinamo Ak Bars” coach-statistics M.Kuzovenin)