This week Zenit St. Petersburg, Dynamo Moscow and Lokomotiv Novosibirsk will face matches of the largely decisive fifth, penultimate round of the Champions League group stage. And Zenit-Kazan and Kuzbass Kemerovo will compete with each other for reaching the quarterfinals in the second-ranked European Volleyball Confederation Cup on the continent.
Before the important games of the main European Cup, Dynamo Moscow and Lokomotiv Novosibirsk competed against each other in the Super League. Photo: WWF Press Service
Despite the fact that the sequence number of the Champions League round is the fifth, not all participants played four matches each. The reason for this is the pandemic. Then one team, then the other, has several players at once receiving positive tests for coronavirus, clubs are quarantined. However, we note the benevolent moods of all the rivals, they agree in a mutually beneficial mode through the EQ on the postponement of the games, and the previously appointed venue of the meeting often changes.
So, for example, Zenit St. Petersburg, led by the head coach of the Russian national team, Finn Tuomas Sammelvuo, will hold the postponed guest meeting of the third round of group “D” with the German “Berlin” at home on February 17, combining it by dates with the home game (February 16). That is, the teams will sort out the relationship on the banks of the Neva River for two days in a row.
A similar, but slightly different situation at Novosibirsk “Locomotive”. The current winner of the Champions League trophy, the Polish “Kendzierzyn-Kozle”, was quarantined by the time of the home game of the fourth round of group “C” against the railwaymen. Now the opponents will hold this match on February 12 in Novosibirsk, although they have already fought here in mid-December.
And only Dynamo Moscow, the reigning champion of Russia, has so far avoided postponing their matches of the quartet “B”, although there were some calendar roughnesses in this group that were not related to our team.
Recall that at the group stage of the Champions League, participants perform in five quartets. All the winners of the groups plus three more teams from the second places according to the best indicators will advance to the quarterfinals. Separately, we emphasize: in tournaments under the auspices of the ECW, the primary indicator for the distribution of places in the table is the number of wins, and only then count the number of points (wins 3:1, 3:0 – 3 points, 3:2 – 2, defeat 2:3 – 1, 0:3 and 1:3 – 0).
Here is the position of the participants in the three groups where Russian clubs perform.
Group B: Dynamo M – 4 wins – 0 losses (11 points), Ziraatbank (Ankara, Turkey) – 3-1 (9), Warsaw (Poland) – 0-3 (1), Maaseik (Belgium) – 0-3 (0).
Group “C”: Macerata (Italy) – 4-0 (11), Kendzezhin-Kozle – 2-1 (7), Lokomotiv Ns – 1-2 (3), Maribor (Slovenia) – 0-4 (0).
Group “D”: Berlin (Germany) – 3-0 (9), Zenit St. Petersburg – 2-1 (6), Vojvodina (Novi Sad, Serbia) – 1-2 (3), Benfica (Lisbon, Portugal) – 0-3 (0).
In the second most important EKV Cup in the quarterfinals, Zenit-Kazan and Kuzbass Kemerovo successfully overcame the barriers of the previous stages. The confrontation was supposed to begin on February 2 in the capital of Tatarstan, but due to the departure of Kemerovo residents to quarantine, adjustments had to be made to the calendar. By the good will of the rivals, it was decided that both meetings will be held in Kazan on February 9 and 10.
On the eve of the fifth round of the Champions League and the start of the Russian derby in the EKV Cup, our teams played matches of the 16th round of the Super League. However, it turned out to be incomplete, two meetings were postponed, again due to covid problems. And from the games that took place, we will highlight the five-set battle in Moscow, where the capital Dynamo lost in a tie-break to Lokomotiv” – 2:3 (23:25, 25:14, 25:21, 17:25, 10:15).
In the Russian championship, the leaders are: Zenit-Kazan VC – 15 wins – 1 loss (46 points), Lokomotiv Ns – 13-1 (38), Zenit SPb – 11-3 (31), Dynamo M – 11-3 (30). The two strongest teams according to the results of the “regular season” (a total of 26 rounds) will directly get into the “Final six”, eight more clubs will play in four pairs of the classification round for the right to play in the decisive stage.
Where will we watch
Tuesday, February 8
“Match! Game”
23.00. Benfica (Lisbon, Portugal) – Zenit (Saint Petersburg). Champions League. Group “D”. Live broadcast.
Wednesday, February 9
“TV Start”
15.00. “Locomotive” (Novosibirsk) – “Macerata” (Italy). Champions League. Group “C”. Live broadcast.
“Match! Arena”, “TV Start”
19.00. Zenit-Kazan – Kuzbass (Kemerovo). EKV Cup. Quarterfinals. The first match. Live broadcast.
“Match! Game”, “TV Start”
22.30. “Warsaw” (Poland) – Dynamo (Moscow). Champions League. Group “B”. Live broadcast.
Thursday, February 10
“Match! Game”, “TV Start”
19.00. Zenit-Kazan – Kuzbass (Kemerovo). EKV Cup. Quarterfinals. The second match. Live broadcast.
