On Wednesday elite Volleyball will return to the capital of Tatarstan as Dinamo KAZAN and Chemik POLICE will be fighting for the provisional leadership in Pool A of the 2015 CEV DenizBank Volleyball Champions League – Women.

Two weeks ago last year’s gold medallists Dinamo KAZAN were close to claim in three sets their match with Rabita BAKU but their opponents eventually completed a terrific comeback to seize the night at the tie-break. Dinamo KAZAN have had a very busy and tight schedule in the Russian national league but nevertheless they are extremely motivated to go for a positive result in their match up with Poland’s reigning champions. Chemik POLICE are the current leaders of Pool A with six points from their matches with Rabita and Agel PROSTEJOV where they did not drop a set.   

Dinamo and Chemik share some common patterns, and not simply the colours of their shirts. After Ekaterina Gamova joined the Tatars back in 2010, Dinamo have become the major force in Russia and Chemik did the same last year in their country after signing Malgorzata Glinka-Mogentale, Poland’s Volleyball icon and a two-time winner of the Champions League with Turkey’s VakifBank ISTANBUL. Chemik have also recruited a few members of Serbia’s national team, starting with setter Maja Ognjenovic and opposite Ana Bjelica who were then joined for the start of the 2014/2015 season also by Stefana Veljkovic and Sanja Malagurski. These transfers were all finalised in order to stand a chance to perform well in the club’s debut in Europe’s most prestigious competition. Their next stop in the Champions league is probably the most demanding one, as Dinamo KAZAN are the current European and world champions as well as four-time Russian champions.

Wednesday’s match will feature a ‘clash of the giants’ between Gamova and Glinka, two of the most successful Volleyball players of the last decade. “We need to take it match by match,” says Dinamo’s mentor Rishat Gilyazutdinov. “The condition of our injured players is improving. Victoriia Chaplina, for example, played a good match last Friday in Moscow with Dinamo. She performed well especially in attack and this is very important because it was hard for her to come back after injury. The match with Rabita BAKU was some kind of ‘tug of war’: the teams exchanged the lead back and forth, our performance was not steady and there was room for improvement. Now we definitely want to play with much more consistency.”