CEV CUP M: Perugia close to shock Dinamo Moscow, Russian side in semis after Golden Set

Dinamo vs. Perugia

It is too bad that one of these two great teams had to end their journey in the Challenge Round of the second-ranked European Cup.

Dinamo’s coaching staff was warning it’s players that Perugia is certainly going to play much better than in the first leg and that’s how it happened. Perugia annulled defeat suffered in Italy (0-3) by achieving win that had the same value 3-1 (25-21, 25-18, 23-25, 25-15) in the second leg. But, Perugia spilled it all out in Golden Set 13-15.

Both teams suffered in reception (Dinamo 33% of positive reception, Perugia 30%), while liberos of each team (Aleksey Obmochaev and Andre Giovi) especially failed in that segment of a play.

But, attack was working perfectly on both sides! Serbian Aleksandar Atanasijević and American Aaron Russell stood out in Perugia with 25 and 23 points, respectively. Dinamo’s duo of the best scorers (Denis Biryukov 17 and Yuriy Berezhko 15) was not so efficient, but the Russian side had a better collective play in offense.

Italian Ivan Zaytsev was left on the bench for the Golden Set by Dinamo’s coach Oleg Antonov for unknown reasons yet.

In the semifinals, Dinamo will play against rivals from a domestic championship, Gazprom-Yugra Surgut, who eliminated Swiss title holders #Dragons Lugano (3-0 and 3-1).

Challenge Phase / Challenge Round

To see standings, results, stats, videos, etc, visit our page CEV Cup 2015/2016 M.

Check out the Latest news as well.

To back in front page of news click on News.

Share your thoughts about this on WoVForum.