Dinamo KAZAN encountered increased resistance from Polish Chemik in the home game of the 5th tour of the Champions League 4th round, but nevertheless won 3:1 and made the playoffs ahead of schedule as a Group C winner.

Shortly before the match in Kazan, the Polish team faced a lot of trouble. Problems began with their sensational defeat in the quarterfinals of the Polish Cup to an opponent from the First League. That is, the current national champion lost to a team from the second division of the Polish Championship. After that, Yakub Glushchak, the head coach of Chemik POLICE, resigned. And on top of that, the main opposite hitter of the team, Katarzyna Zaroslinska-Krol,  suffered an injury.

But, notwithstanding all these losses, the Polish guests struggled very decently in the first set. As usual, Dinamo KAZAN managed to take the lead 9:5 due to the power serve of Natalia Mammadova. But the Polish girls managed to catch up - 20:19 - and won a tense ending.

The ding-dong fight continued in the first half of the second set - 12:11 until Rishat Gilyazutdinov changed the playmaker. The presence of Irina Filishtinskaya changed the playing style of the Kazan team, quite unexpectedly for the opponents - 15:11. The defeat was capped by a power serve of Irina Voronkova - 20:12.

After such a shock, the guests were completely lost - 7:0. The Russians dominated for almost the entire third set - 20:13. However, they lost their concentration at the end, and Chemik POLICE immediately used this opportunity - 23:22.  Yet, the home team still kept the lead in this set - 25:23.

At the beginning of the fourth set, the Poles tried to even the score - 2:5 after the aces of Bianka Busa and Stefana Veljkovic. The Russians, however, quickly seized the initiative - 9:6. And the volleyball players of Dinamo KAZAN Irina Koroleva, Elitsa Vasileva and Anastasia Samoylenko, in their turn, completely destroyed the Poles' reception - 20:9. Thanks to the victory in this game, the Russian team became the winner in the Group C of the Champions League ahead of time.

Alexander Perepelkin, assistant coach of Dinamo KAZAN: “Today the opponent played a little better than they did in the first match we played in Poland. They served better and played well, especially at blocking. This made us look a bit shaky in the opening set. However, it is good that we managed to win comfortably the next set, since this made things easier for us for the remainder of the match.”

Strashimira Simeonova, player of Chemik POLICE: “I believe that we played well today. Katarzyna Zaroslinska could not join the game but the team delivered a good performance even without her. As for Dinamo KAZAN, they served really strong – and in Poland there are no teams like that, who can serve that well and that powerfully at the same time.”

Champions League. Pool С. 5th tour.
Dinamo (Kazan, Russia) – Chemik (Police, Poland) - 3:1 (24:26, 25:16, 25:23, 25:14)
21th February. Russia. Kazan. Volleyball Center “Saint Petersburg”.
Referee: Rychlik D. (Czech Republic). Match time: 1.47 (29+24+30+24).
Dinamo: Koroleva (17), Voronkova (16), Mammadova (17), Startseva – C, Vasileva (12), Samoilenko (7) – starting line-up, Ulanova (libero), Ezhova, Kotikova, Filishtinskaia (3).
Chemik: Busa (12), Smarzek (20), Veljkovic (9), Mirkovic (2), Medrzyk (10), Simeonova (13) – starting line-up, Krzos (libero), Holston, Gajgal-Aniol (1), Belcik – C,
Points – 99:79, serve – 9:5, spike – 45:55, block – 18:7, reception – 37%:30%, errors – 17:32.
(Statistics by “Dinamo Kazan” coach-statistics M.Kuzovenin)