Zenit KAZAN finish the 4th Round with six victories after beating ACH Volley LJUBLJANA in four sets on their last match in Pool C. The Russian team, who secured a ticket to the Quarterfinal phase on Wednesday night, aimed to end this Round with a full “six-pack” regardless of their future in the competition. Ljubljana who were unable to gain enough points to progress in the Champions League kept their third position in the table with 6 points.

Stars of Vladimir Alekno’s squad started the game on the bench, as KAZAN’s coach allowed Loran Alekno, Artem Smolyar, Andrey Surmachevskiy, Denis Zemchenok, Aleksei Kononov and Fedor Voronkov to take the centre stage against ACH Volley Ljubljana. Slovenians opted for fewer changes - Bozidar Vucicevic replaced Mitar Tzourits, who played against Berlin on Tuesday.
Kazan began the match with a slight lead, but Slovenians soon tied at 10-10. Russians responded immediately, putting a pressure from the service line, including aces by Kononov and Zemchenok and transforming the score to a 15-11 lead. Kazan maintained the three-point lead until the end of the set, winning at 25-21.
The game continued point by point in the second set and Slovenians soon showed more confidence as they went 11-14 ahead. Vucicevic was the engine of his team, scoring 13 points by the time Ljubljana reached a 13-16 lead. Ljubljana remained ahead to tie the score at 1-1 (25-21, 20-25), despite trailing behind Kazan in service and block points.
Kazan went back to leading ways half into the third set, going 16-11 ahead. Andrey Surmachevskiy was driving his team ahead, becoming the top scorer on Russian side as he gained 15 points, including four blocks. Ljubljana found it difficult to get and edge on Russians and Kazan won the set 25-20.
The final set began with a tight game between both teams, but Kazan took control over the scoreboard at 13-8. Vucicevic and Surmachevskiy were going head to head as the best scorers for their respective teams, as Ljubljana kept fighting to decrease the point difference. A triple block on Zemchenok brought them closer to 21-18, but Voronkov responded with an ace soon after, keeping Kazan at a safe distance at 23-18 and Kazan sealed the deal at 25-20.

• Kazan and Ljubljana repeated a scenario from the 1st leg of the competition, when the Russian team also won in four sets

• Bozidar Vucicevic and Andrey Surmachevskiy were the best scorers in the match, with 22 points each. Vucicevic had 21 winning blocks and 1 ace, while Surmachevskiy scored 14 winning spikes, 2 aces and 6 blocks for Kazan.

• Surmachevskiy was his team leading blocker as Kazan won 10 points in this element to only 2 of Ljubljana

• Kazan performed well in service, with 5 players contributing 8 points collectively from the service line

Matija Plesko, coach of ACH Volley Ljubljana: “It wasn’t such a surprise that coach Alekno played with different squad and we had two plans prepared, but in the end it’s about how we played. It was obviously not enough, but I am a little bit satisfied that we showed different face than against Berlin. We reacted okay and the number in service in block made the difference - this is individual quality that Kazan have. Compliments and good luck to coach Alekno and his team.”

Kyle Patrick Dagostino, libero of ACH Volley Ljubljana: “After a loss against Berlin we realised we didn’t have a chance for next round. That took some pressure off of us, so we came in here feeling light and just enjoy playing Zenit Kazan. Rarely do you get experience of playing teams like this. We’re grateful and took the opportunity that we had.