Through Kazan to your game

Gazprom-Yugra enters the hardest finishing spurt of the regular season, where it will be extremely difficult to count on victories. And you don’t need to count – you just need to return to that game, which the team demonstrated in most of the second round matches (last game doesn't count), and come what may.

Not a single Super League team in this frantic race was without recessions and failures, This happened to us in Novokuibyshevsk. It had an effect, finally, absence of Krsmanovich and Korotaev. it happens, we must forget and move forward. And ahead is Zenit-Kazan, national champion of last season and leader of the current season.

Whatever line-up Alexey Verbov will field in Surgut, it won't be easy for us. Labinsky or Deru, Surmachevsky or Volkov, Mikhailov or Klets, Volvich, Romanovsky, Scherbynyn, Kononov – the difference is small. The only unshakable position is setter Micah Christenson.. “Our” Evgeny Rukavishnikov, of course, also capable of playing the game, especially with such masters, but with the best setter in the world (in multiple versions) or without it - this is a noticeable difference.

However, Verbov has a negative experience of a relaxed visit to Surgut. In covid 2020 year, in the last match of the regular season, Kazan lost at the Premier Arena 0:3 with Laurent Alekno, Tsvetan Sokolov and Maxim Mikhailov in the final game. Thanks to that victory, the Surgut team jumped into the playoffs and even played their first play-off match with Dynamo.. But then the games were canceled, and the champion was determined based on the results of the regular season. The defeat in Surgut cost Alexey Verbov the title and he probably remembered it - you can’t relax in any game.

So you can’t expect an easy life from Zenit on Saturday, Kazan residents will play for all the money. The team is physically powerful, fast and accurate thanks to Mike, with a well-executed game on the back line, in the safety net. These are all words, in fact, in every element, Kazan residents 10-15% superior to opponents, summing up superiority and gaining victory points. Yes, they also have recessions and failures, but thanks to good rotation the overall level remains consistently high.

What are the chances of Gazprom-Ugra? I think, we have a chance to fight, show yourself, rehabilitate through the game for the last defeat. What will be the final score on the scoreboard?, not that important. We need to get our volleyball back, which will be very useful to us at the end of the season. In games with teams of the Zenit-Kazan level, trying to do this will be as effective as possible.