Impressive at the net (12 blocks) and on the serve, the Russians of Dinamo Moscow dictated things in the CEV Cup quarter-finals first leg in Italy. While Moscow was led by Zaytsev in attack, Kovac’s men faded after a good start and made too many unforced errors (24). The positive note of the evening however was the come-back to full fitness of Russell. Buti and co will now need a real breakthrough, Golden set included, to make it into the semi-finals.
“We knew that Moscow was an incredibly strong team but we could have done better tonight and taken more risks – said Simone Buti – But then every time we tried a little something extra we made mistakes so it became very difficult to keep up”.
SIR SAFETY-SICOMA PERUGIA-DINAMO MOSCOW 0-3 20-25, 19-25, 22-25 SIR SAFETY-SICOMA PERUGIA: De Cecco, Atanasijevic 14, Birarelli 1, Buti 4, Russell 9, Kaliberda 9, Giovi (libero), Tzioumakas 1, Dimitrov, Fromm 1. DNP.: Fanuli, Elia. Coach. Kovac,
DINAMO MOSCOW: Grankin 1, Zaytsev 17, Shcherbinin 8, Holt 7, Biryukov 6, Berezhko 11, Obmochaev (libero), Filippov, Kruglov 1. DNP.: Ermakov (libero), Pankov, Boldyrev. Coach. Antonov
