Kazan, Russia, January 20, 2015. Dinamo KAZAN and Rabita BAKU will be playing on Thursday in the capital of Tatarstan their fifth match in Pool A of the 2015 CEV DenizBank Volleyball Champions League – Women. This match, a remake of last year’s semi-final, will have an impact on the perspectives of both teams in the competition and so it is easy to predict a close and hard-fought battle.

The scenario in Pool A has turned into something only a few could have predicted since Poland’s rookies Chemik POLICE are currently topping the tables of the group. Last year’s gold medallists Dinamo KAZAN have been struggling after their roster underwent many changes during the off-season. Even though they have found an excellent middle blocker in Elena Yurieva – who has followed in the footsteps of Regina Moroz – they still haven’t found a good replacement for their former outside spiker Jordan Larson-Burbach who has moved to Turkey to play for Eczacibasi VitrA. In order to get back on track, Dinamo has seen the return of their former libero Ekaterina Ulanova (Kabeshova), who is back in Kazan to help the team out.

“Our problems have been exacerbated by a tight schedule,” says head coach Rishat Gilyazutdinov. “There is no time to practice and to work on developing the right team work and chemistry. We have no time to rest, no time for training,” he adds. Last week Dinamo KAZAN lost 1:3 to Chemik POLICE and this setback came after extensive journeys: “We first had to play Dinamo KRASNODAR, our toughest competitor in the Russian Superleague and after that we went to Poland. The journey from one venue to the other has been really long and tiring, with two flights and another long trip by bus. So after easily winning the first set we ran out of fuel and we could not keep that pace,” the Russian mentor stresses. “On the other hand, our opponents could rely on the support of more than 5,000 fans and this also boosted their confidence and determination to win.”

Dinamo KAZAN and Rabita BAKU are playing each other for the second time this season. Weeks ago in Azerbaijan’s capital Dinamo won the first and second sets but Rabita fought back strong, warding off some match balls for their opponents in the third set. The match ended in a tie-break victory for Rabita who got their revenge after losing before the home audience in last year’s semis. However, coach Gilyazutdinov is confident that Dinamo have significantly improved the quality of their team work and performance since last November. As there is a ticket to the Playoffs at stake, the match coming up on Thursday is certainly going to be one to watch out for and Dinamo is very determined to seize the night.