Kazan, Russia, November 24, 2015. On Thursday Russia’s giants Dinamo KAZAN will challenge Azerrail BAKU – one of two Azerbaijani teams drawn in Pool A of the 2016 CEV DenizBank Volleyball Champions League – for their second home match in Europe’s finest competition.

By some quirk of fate Dinamo KAZAN are crossing their way with two Azerbaijani clubs in Pool A of the 2016 CEV DenizBank Volleyball Champions League. Almost a month ago the armada from Tatarstan upset Lokomotiv BAKU recording a 3:1 victory in their first home match. This coming Thursday Azerrail will measure up their skills with Dinamo KAZAN and try to make amends for the loss their countrywomen suffered to the Tatars.

The two teams from Azerbaijan do not share only one city and country but the sponsorship from Azerbaijan’s national railroad operator as well. Another feature the two clubs have in common is the trophies they won in the CEV Volleyball Challenge Cup. Azerrail have two (2002, 2011) whilst Lokomotiv won the 2012 edition of that same competition. Besides, Azerrail have a lot more experience in terms of playing on the international arena.

Admittedly, there is no point in speculating on any kind of consistency in the team’s roster due to Azerbaijani clubs’ dependence on foreign players which has already become a tradition. Moreover, Azerrail BAKU have even changed their name since last year. The reason is that that back in 2013 Azerrail was taken as the basis for the establishment of a mega-project under the denomination of Azeryol BAKU, which was specifically set up to be led by the Italian coach Giovanni Caprara. Though Caprara did eventually not move to Azerbaijan, the club played for two seasons under that name.

While considering the current season, most of the players who were on the roster last year left the ranks of Azerrail BAKU during the summer. Dwelling on their major losses, first of all, it is worth mentioning Serbian-born star opposite Jovana Brakocevic and the libero of the German national team, Lenka Dürr. Only three players extended their contracts: Bulgarian-born middle blocker Strashimira Filipova – who is familiar to Russian Volleyball fans because she previously played for Uralochka-NTMK in Ekaterinburg – and two Azerbaijani Volleyball players: Anastasiia Muzyka and Odina Bayramova, who took over the captaincy after Oksana Kurt-Parkhomenko finished her career.

By contrast, only four new players joined Dinamo KAZAN’s roster in the off season. As for Azerrail, it preserved its cosmopolitan line-up: two liberos and two setters from Puerto Rico and Thailand respectively, two outside spikers and middle blockers from the USA and a Senegal-born outside spiker. After four more locals joined the ranks, the number of Azeri-born players in the team went up to six, which shows the intention and commitment of the club to further contribute to the development of Volleyball in the country.

Finally, a few words should be said about the new coach of Azerrail, Turkey’s Bülent Karslioglu. Last August, just before the start of the European Championship, he was urgently invited to lead the Azerbaijani national team instead of the diseased ‘founding father’ of Azerbaijani women’s Volleyball, Faig Garayev. Then, he was entrusted to coach the Azerrail club established by Faig Garayev himself back in 2000. If the national team led by Karslioglu did not do well at the women’s EuroVolley due to the lack of training time, the achievements at the club level turned out to be a little bit better. They indeed started their Champions League campaign with a home victory over Germany’s Allianz MTV STUTTGART before losing the derby with Lokomotiv BAKU two weeks ago. The situation is pretty much the same in Azerbaijan’s Super League where Azerrail claimed two wins and suffered two defeats, including one from Lokomotiv. In the third round of the CEV DenizBank Volleyball Champions League the Azerrail ladies are now tuning up for a clash with the side that upset their ‘compatriots’ – Dinamo KAZAN. After a disappointing debut in the national championship, the Russians have swept all of their matches so far both domestically as well as on the international stage.