Fascinating turn in Kazan in week’s Champions League highlight

An incredible turn of events in the capital of Tatarstan on Thursday evening highlighted the first leg of the semifinal stage in the CEV Champions League Volley 2021 - Men. Emulating Unet e-work Busto Arsizio’s feat at VakifBank Istanbul from the night before, Poland’s Grupa Azoty Kedzierzyn-Kozle snatched a dramatic comeback victory over the most decorated team in Champions League history.

Russian powerhouse Zenit Kazan, six-time club continental champions and participants in the five most recent finals of the men’s Champions League, playing at home against a Polish team, whose best result in the competition so far was the bronze medal they earned 18 years ago, were well in charge of the first two sets and just a point away from a straight-forward 3-0 win. They seemed to be cruising towards a comfortable victory, when the events at the Saint Petersburg sports hall in Kazan took a fascinating turn.

After 24-22 Zenit’s way, Grupa Azoty denied the opponents as many as five opportunities to close the match, and on their first set point, deep into overtime, took the set by 29-27. They claimed the fourth set to push it to a fifth-set decider. They did not bow to an early three-point lead for the formidable rivals and came back to reach a double match point. But the drama did not end there. Zenit levelled it off to prompt a nail-biting epilogue, in which the squad from Kedzierzyn-Kozle gained another match point, which rising Polish star Jakub Kochanowski converted to a 3-2 (22-25, 22-25, 29-27, 25-22, 16-14) victory by winning a joust with legendary Russian Alexander Volkov.

Of course, everyone from Grupa Azoty must be perfectly aware that the job is not done yet. In the quarterfinals, their team had achieved a stunning four-set away victory over defending crown-bearers Cucine Lube Civitanova, when the Italians came back with a straight-set win in Kedzierzyn-Kozle before a 16-14 golden set sent the Polish side on to the semis.

In a far more straight-forward first leg of the other semifinal series, Trentino Itas dominated their home encounter with fellow Italians Sir Sicoma Monini Perugia to gain a 3-0 win and some level of comfort ahead of next week’s trip to Perugia for the return match.

Visit the semifinals’ match centres.