On Wednesday night Russia’s Dinamo KAZAN routed Italy’s Nordmeccanica PIACENZA in three straight sets (25-21, 25-22, 25-21) as they had done two weeks ago at home to secure their qualification for the Final Four of the 2016 CEV DenizBank Volleyball Champions League – Women scheduled for April 9-10 in Montichiari, Italy. Their next opponent in the semis will be hosts Pomì CASALMAGGIORE and the Russian armada will be starting from there their quest for a second CL crown after they already stood on top of the podium back in 2014.

In Montichiari Dinamo KAZAN will celebrate their third Final Four appearance after their gold medal performance in 2014 and the bronze medal they won in 2012 in Baku in what was their debut season in Europe’s elite competition.

Though Nordmeccanica fought with everything they had before 1,900 fans at Palabanca, this was not enough to stand a chance against the star-studded Russian team, which in the end fully deserved their progression to the elite consisting of the top four clubs in Europe. However, Nordmeccanica were also side-lined by the injury suffered right at the beginning of the match by their Dutch outside spiker Floortje Meijners, who did not come back to the court at all. As for Dinamo, the Russians were paced by Elitsa Vasileva and Antonella Del Core who scored 15 and 12 points, respectively.

After only two points of the opening set, Meijners was replaced by Giulia Pascucci as a result of an injury and Dinamo KAZAN first broke away at 7-4 and then extended their lead to 15-10. PIACENZA closed in at 17-14 with the help of Pascucci and their deficit was reduced down to only two points at 17-15 after a rally finished by Francesca Marcon. However, Dinamo KAZAN changed gear again and Vasileva propelled a 23-19 lead for the Russian champions that was enough to capitalise on and close the opening set at 25-21.

Dinamo continued their show also in the second set where they controlled the score at both technical time-outs (8-5, 16-13), with the second break being called after an ace by Vasileva. PIACENZA closed in to only one point through Pascucci and Yvon Beliën but Dinamo did not tremble, remained focussed through to the end and with their 25-22 set win the Tatars secured their ticket to Montichiari.

The third set was kind of meaningless and Dinamo KAZAN quite understandably played a lot more relaxed; Nordmeccanica edged ahead at 19-18 but the Russians did not want to concede anything to the hosts and brought the match to an end at 25-21 to complete a clean sweep of six straight sets in their two matches with the team around coach Marco Gaspari.

Champions League. Play-off 6. Return match.
Nordmeccanica (PIACENZA, Italy) – Dinamo (KAZAN, Russia) – 0:3 (21:25, 22:25, 21:25)
23rd March. Italy. Piacenza. Arena “PalaBanka”.
Referee: Rodriguez S. (Spain). Time match: 1.21 (28+28+25).
Piacenza: Sorokaite (12), Belien (7), Bauer – C (8), Marcon (7), Meijners (1), Ognjenovic – start six, Leonardi (libero), Valeriano, Petrucci (2), Pascucci (5).
Dinamo: Borodakova – C (1), Gendel (10), Gamova (9), Startseva (4), Del Core (12), Vasileva (15) – start six, Kuzyakina (libero), Ulanova (libero), Malkova (3), Melnikova (1).
Points – 64:75, serve – 2:7, attack – 37:38, block – 3:10, reception – 41%:47%, error – 24:21.
(Statistic by Dinamo KAZAN coach-statistics M.Kuzovenin)