Russia’s Dinamo KAZAN extended on Wednesday afternoon their winning streak in Pool A of the 2016 CEV DenizBank Volleyball Champions League to four straight matches following their 3:1 away victory over Azerrail BAKU (25-20, 21-25, 25-21, 25-17). Dinamo KAZAN are the undisputed leaders of the pool and can look confidently towards the final two rounds of action which are due to follow in January after the New Year’s holidays and the break due to the Olympic qualification.

The first set was very close at the beginning and Dinamo called for the first technical time-out leading by 8:7. Though local captain Odina Bayramova performed really well for Azerrail, still her contribution was not enough to prevent Dinamo from cruising to a 25-20 set win.

However, the Russians relaxed a bit too early in the second set and Azerrail edged ahead at the second technical time-out of set 2 (16:14) eventually bringing the period to a happy end at 25-21 in their favour.

The third set was another pretty close race but Dinamo had the upper hand at 25-21. In set 4 the Russians controlled the game from start to end and with their 25-17 win they sealed their fourth straight victory in Europe’s elite competition.

The coach of Azerrail Bülent Karslioglu commented: “I am satisfied with our game tonight and my players did everything they could. There are still another two matches left and we will be trying to do our best in order to make it out of this difficult group.”

“I felt like my players looked a bit tired or maybe even quite exhausted today but still we travel home with another victory which is the most important thing in the end,” said Russian mentor Rishat Gilyazutdinov.

Champions League. Pool A. 4rd Leg.
Azerrail (Baku, Azerbaijan) – Dinamo (Kazan, Russia) – 1:3 (20:25, 25:21, 21:25, 17:25)
9th December. Azerbaijan. Baku. A.Y.S. Sport Hall.
Referee: Zahorcova K. (Czech Republic). Tima match: 1.41 (27+26+25+23).
Azerrail: Bayramova – C (12), Kingdon (14), Eckerman (16), Tow-Arnett (7), Filipova (7), Tomkom (5) – start six, Buakaew (libero), Mammadova (1), Valentin (1), Diouck.
Dinamo: Malkova (11), Gendel (10), Gamova (12), Startseva (3), Del Core (12), Vasileva (20) – start six, Ezhova (libero), Melnikova (1), Stolyarova.
Points – 83:96, serve – 4:8, attack – 54:45, block – 5:16, reception – 39%:50%, error – 34:21.
(Statistic by Dinamo KAZAN coach-statistics M.Kuzovenin)