Dubai: The Russian camp looked bullish after a sensational 3-1 win over defending champions Brazil on the second day of the FIVB Men’s U23 World Championship at the Al Ahli Club late on Tuesday.
The top seeds were at their very best with Alexander Kimerov and Egor Kliuka accounting for 20 points apiece as the European champions won 26-24, 17-25, 25-16, 25-21 against the champions of the 2013 edition, when this competition was first introduced on the FIVB calendar in Uberlandia, Brazil.
Russia outlasted Brazil in all departments of the game, accounting for 59 spikes and 13 blocks compared to 53 spikes and eight blocks respectively from the South Americans, who were led by Alan Souza’s 19 points.
“All games against Brazil are always very important for us. We won today because we did a good technical setting for the match, despite having just five of the players from the last time we played each other. With such an important win we take forward a lot of emotions into the semi-finals,” Russian coach Mikhail Nikolaev told Gulf News.
“We were exceptional today as we merely listened to our coach’s instructions and did exactly what he told us to do. Brazil is always a very interesting team with solid play at the net and we enjoy playing them. Ultimately, it is a nice feeling to win against a strong team. But we will not stop here. We need to carry forward this momentum and maintain our clean slate,” Russian captain Egor Feoktistov said.
Brazilian coach Roberley Leonaldo (Rubinho) refrained from looking too far ahead. “We need to play better in our next few matches and only then can we think about the knockout stages. It’s a long trip to the final and we don’t want to look so far ahead. The Russian team can think of the final after today’s win against us,” Rubinho said.
“Russia played very well and with minimal mistakes. They put us under a lot of pressure. Honestly, they played like any other team from Russia. They have good players on attack. They are on the right road. Sometimes they did commit mistakes, but they recovered well,” he added.
