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Belogorie Belgorod from Russia and Qatar’s Al-Rayyan will clash in the gold medal match of the FIVB Men’s Club World Championship. In Friday’s semi-finals, the Russian club, who are also the European champions, beat Argentina’s UPCN, while Al-Rayyan provided a tough hit to local team and defending champions Sada Cruzeiro. |
The greatest upset of the tournament was the main highlight of the penultimate day’s action of the premier club volleyball tournament.
Sada Cruzeiro managed to earn the first set after trailing from the beginning, but then Al-Rayyan did some heavy damage from the service line and walked to a shocking 3-1 (21-25, 25-18, 25-21, 25-18) win.
Al-Rayyan nailed nine direct serving points, with Robertlandy Simon scoring three and a total of 16 points, while Matey Kaziyski and Michael Sanchez Bozhulev aced twice and completed personal scores of 17 and 14, respectively.
“We made many mistakes, but we also converted many aces, turning that into a strong point and making the difference set after set,” underlined Kaziyski, placing there the key to the result.
Rayyan coach Igor Arbutina added, “Not only we have a team with the best players in the world, we also played with less pressure. For us, entering the semifinal was the main goal. Sada Cruzeiro were playing under big pressure as they were play at home, while we played like we had nothing to lose.”
Al-Rayyan will face Belogorie Belgorod for the world title.
The European champions had to climb back against a battling UPCN side, which played an almost perfect opening set.
However, Belgorod enjoyed a key entrance from Dmitriy Ilinykh and 18 points from Germany’s Gyorgy Grozer to ultimately prevail 3-1 (19-25, 25-14, 25-21, 25-20).
“I want to thank the UPCN players because this was a very good game, fairly played, and we are very satisfied with the match,” congratulated Belgorod coach Gennady Shipulin.
Before taking a personal photo with UPCN’s Fabian Armoa, the Russian closed the press conference thinking about the gold medal match: “We have to do well and rest, because it will be our fifth game in a row. With that, let God decide.”
For the great closure of FIVB Men’s Club World Championship, UPCN and Sada Cruzeiro will play for the bronze medal, followed by the title clash between Belgorod and Al-Rayyan.
