Two different parts of the same match

"Gazprom-Ugra": Ozhiganov - Shakhbanmirzaev, Piun - Ionov, Katich - Botin, Nagaec/Vlaskov

"Zenit-Kazan": Christenson - Mikhailov, Volkov - Shcherbynin, Deru - Surmachevsky, Golubev

This time, Alexey Verbov decided to give Dmitry Volkov a rest., and the Surgutians have a whole clip of players and even coaches left out of the game for medical reasons. Rajab Shakhbanmirzaev replaced Nikita Alekseev diagonally, Captain Dmitry Makarenko was replaced by Anton Botin, and the absence of libero Vladislav Dyakov allowed Yegor Vlaskov to make his debut in the Super League 2004 the year of birth.

The match started with a kind of giveaway game - the hosts did not use the chances before the game, the guests made a lot of mistakes, but still had a slight advantage. Which was dissolved thanks to two Mikhaylov's mistakes in the attack, 14:14. Immediately after that, Kurbatov replaces Ionova until the end of the match, and ace Botin puts Gazprom-Ugra ahead, 16:15. In a bitter struggle, the hosts managed to move the advantage one more step, 20:18, but the guests returned the game to balance (22:22), to put the squeeze on the opponent in the end.

In the second game, Rajab answers Surmachevsky's ace with ace (4:3), but Mikhailov found himself, and Christenson found Mikhailov, 5:8 after two attacks by the Olympic champion. Owners respond immediately: Botin corrects a mistake in reception, Deru blocked by a block, and Piun draws the pitch right through, 8:8. Further more: again active in attack and serve Botin, Kurbatov closes Volkov and on the serves of the central Surgut the score grows to 17:12 – allotted reception gives the hosts chances, which they are implementing this time.

"Zenith" does not keep itself waiting with an answer: twice accurate Deru, Katic fails to beat an organized block on a dropped hold (17:15). At all, Surgut residents found themselves a "client" at the reception in the person of Andrey Surmachevsky, Kazan responded with a hail of innings to Botin, and the finisher did not always cope with this work. In the end, Kazan began rolling, tightly covering Katic and Rajab with a block, and even the heroic efforts of Nagayets in insurance did not give a result (22:21). It seemed, what a little more, and Zenit will overtake Gazprom-Yugra, but that's a little bit not enough: Christensen is out, and Rajab bounced off the block twice, holding the eat and leveling the score in batches.

The third set started with a mistake by Rajab, throwing the ball past the hands of the blockers in touch, and continued with the hit parade of marriage from Surgut. Kazanians pushed the fine-tuning of Gazprom-Ugra away from the grid with a dense pitch, and on high balls and an organized Rajab block, Katic and Botin systematically could not bring the matter to a result. at level 1:6 instead of Shakhbanmirzaev, setter Maxim Kirillov entered the game. Need to mark, that the 19-year-old player loves and knows how to attack, acting in the international league as a follower. He managed a couple of attacks, and then he didn’t find the line twice and ended up in a powerful block of the opponent. In such a game, the hosts scored points on occasion, writing off the entire marriage to the balance sheet of Zenith. The set ended with two aces of Surmachevsky and an attack by Mikhailov from the block.

In the fourth game, the trends of the previous set continued, with that difference, that the owners occasionally flashed something, and Kirillov this time went to the position of the player instead of Botin. The hosts earned the last semblance of a struggle on two mistakes of Surmachevsky - in the reception and adventurous attack from the second touch (7:9), but Andrey more than compensated for this with a crazy serve and subsequent clean play on the net. Surgutians still could not cope with the reception and, Consequently, with attack on high balls, and the guests coolly brought the matter to victory.

"Gazprom-Ugra" fought as best he could:

Head coach of VC Zenit-Kazan Alexey Verbov: “In the first two sets there was nervousness, we discussed it in breaks and between games. At some point, we managed to get back into the game and think about volleyball. Important, that they rebuilt in time. The quality of our game at the beginning left much to be desired, Surgut well done, the first two games kept a very good level, made little mistake, at some point luck was on their side. Also I have seen, that we are a little heavy because, that we are preparing for the Final Four of the Cup of Russia. All my players are able to play better, how we played the first two games. At the same time I'm glad, that the players repaid my trust in full and the third and fourth sets played well, dominated, and due to the second half of the match, we reached some of our good indicators. I'm not very interested in the score. We could play well and lose 0:2, this happens too. But we played bad, that was the problem. At the same time, Surgut could do nothing, and that would be enough for us, but very good, who faced difficulties. We were able to "cure" the game here and now, not in Novy Urengoy".

Captain of VC "Zenit-Kazan" Alexander Volkov: "It's not easy, we have Ilyukha (Ilya Fedorov - ed.) "turned up" during the warm-up, there was a hitch with the form, but thank god it's all over. In the second game, our mistake was that, that we started judging, instead of playing volleyball. These moments prevented us, to finish 3:0. With the absence of Alekseev and Makarenko from the owners, it became easier for them, because there is no pressure on the team, but it's harder for us. They get it all right, and we had to gnaw our glasses out ".

Connecting VK "Gazprom-Yugra" Vadim Ozhiganov: “In the first two games, Zenit groped for its pitch, your game, thus giving us the opportunity to play. Somewhere we managed to impose our own, make them wrong, did not give up. The third and fourth installments showed, that they found their feed, began to beat us more, we almost always attacked on a triple block. we, of course, dissatisfied with the result. Going out against Dynamo, "Locomotive", "Zenith", we fight, We try to play to win in any situation.”.

Gazprom-Yugra (Surgut) 1: 3 Zenit-Kazan (Kazan)

match stats

Details

Date	Time	Championship
17.12.2022	19:00	CR 2022-2023

Results

Team	1	2	3	4	GENERAL.
Gazprom-Yugra (Surgut)	23	25	11	15	1
Zenit-Kazan (Kazan)	25	23	25	25	3

Venue

g. Surgut / SC "Premier Arena"

Gazprom-Yugra (Surgut)

1	2	3	4	5	S	K	E	FACING	B	PTS
0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0

Zenit-Kazan (Kazan)

1	2	3	4	5	S	K	E	FACING	B	PTS
0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0