Azerbaijan – Finland
The hosts caught a marvelous start (7:2) and got up 8:4 by the first technical time-out; the game was evidently controlled by the players mentored by Faig Garayev (14:6, 16:10) before Finland attempted a comeback and closed the gap up to 16:13. Natalya Mammadova got the home side back on track (19:14) but Finland stormed back once more and eventually drew level at 22. The final rush was extremely close but Azerbaijan eventually had the upper hand at 25-23
.
Azerbaijan got to the front in the early phases of the second set (5:2) and Mammadova stretched the gap to 8:3; Finland tried to stay tuned (11:7) and eventually leveled at 12; Azerbaijan changed gear after the second technical time-out (16:15, 23:17) and finally pocketed the provisional 2:0 (25-19).
The game followed a similar plot in set 3 with Azerbaijan setting the pace (5:2, 8:3) and keeping a good margin (12:7) before Finland clawed back to 12:10. After a break asked by Garayev, the home heroines pushed to go up 20:16 and 23:18 before closing the game in straight sets (25-20).
