Russia
Only three Olympic Finals was decided in tie-break. The first one happened in 1976 when Poland defeated the Soviet Union, the second one occurred in 1996 when Netherlnads downed Italy, while the last one was 4 years ago in London. It was the historic clash between Brazil and Russia.
Brazil was leading 2-0 (25:19, 25:20), and it looked like that Giba, Murilo and Co. would easily clinch the gold medal. Especially, as they were leading 22:19 in the 3rd set. However, Russia did not want to give up. Boys coached by Vladimir Alekno managed to tie the score at 22:22, then to save 2 match points of Brazil at 23:24 and 24:25, while the key moment of this match happened at the score of 27:27.
Brazil had a counter-attack, but Sergey Grankin made a miraculous save and Russia scored a point couple of moments later for 28:27. Finally Alexander Volkov made a block and Russia won the 3rd set by 29:27.
You can see Grankin’s save in the following video.
By reducing the overall score to 1:2 in sets, Russia took over the control over the match. With amazing Dmitriy Muserskiy on their side (31 points), Zbornaya won the 4th set by 25:22 and then the tie-break by 15:9. Most importantly, they won the gold medal at the London 2012.
Russia – Brazil 3:2 (19:25, 20:25, 29:27, 25:22, 15:9)
Russia: Apalikov, Khtey, Grankin, Tetyukhin, Sokolov, Berezhko, Butko, Muserskiy, Ilinikh, Mikhaylov, Volkov, Obmochaev. Coach: Vladimir Alekno.
Brazil: Bruno Rezende, Wallace Souza, Sidnei Santos, Leandro Neves, Gilberto Godoy Filho, Murilo Endres, Sérgio Santos, Thiago Alves, Rodrigo Santana, Lucas Saatkamp, Ricardo Garcia, Dante Amaral. Coach: Beranrdo Rezende.
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