Russia: Zaytsev’s impeccable attack prolongs crisis of Zenit-Kazan, home defeats for Surgut, Krasnoyarsk and Fakel

Even though they won the opening match in 2021, the crisis of Zenit-Kazan isn’t over yet: in Round 17 of the 2020/21 Russian Superliga Parimatch regular season, Vladimir Alekno’s team was swept by Kuzbass in straight sets (29:27, 25:23, 25:19).
This was the fourth defeat in the last five games (counting all competitions) to Zenit-Kazan who, however, still lead the standings but now with just 3 points more than vice-leaders, their rivals today. As for Kuzbass, they took revenge on the giants from the Tatarstan region for a defeat in Round 5 and extended the series of victories against them at the home ground to three.
Italian Ivan Zaytsev was unstoppable for the winners, scoring 25 points through an amazing attack (81 %; 22/27, 1 error). Zenit-Kazan came to the encounter without two starters – the Pole Bartosz Bednorz and Artem Volvich.
On the other matches, Ural stunned Fakel (3-0), preventing rivals to, possibly, advance to third place in the standings. Led by Egor Feoktistov (16 points, 52% in attack and 2 aces), Ural broke Fakel’s four-match winning streak and, at the same time, improved their own ranking (from 10th to the seventh position) in the charts.
Another upset is success of ASK Nizhniy Novgorod on the field of Yenisey Krasnoyarsk. Different are the performances by two opposites: 17 points and 35% in attack for Klets, 35 points and 55% in attack for Vietskiy. Close the picture the 2-3 among Gazprom Surgut and Neftyanik Orenburg in recovery match of Round 5, that will play again tomorrow but valid for Round 17.

📌| Results of January 9 | Recovery matches of Round 5
• Dinamo LO – Belogorie Belgorod 1-3 (27:25, 21:25, 22:25, 23:25)
• Yenisey Krasnoyarsk – ASK Nizhniy Novgorod 2-3 (14:25, 27:29, 36:34, 25:20, 15:17)

📌| Results of January 10 | Recovery match of Round 5
• Gazprom Surgut — Neftyanik Orenburg 2-3 (25:20, 20:25, 25:22, 22:25, 13:15)
Top Scorers: Shchakhbanmirzaev 26, Dovgan 12, Kostilenko 12, Chereiskiy 9, Fialkovskiy 8; Shchemyatikhin 25, Purin 23, Shchadilov 12, Ananiev 10, Erkin 6.

📌| Round 17
• Yenisey Krasnoyarsk – ASK Nizhniy Novgorod 1-3 (25:22, 23:25, 22:25, 21:25)
Top Scorers: Klets 17, Iereshchenko 15, Zhuk 13, Piskarev 8; Vietskiy 35, Valeev 16, Titich 13, Nikonenko 9.

• Fakel Novy Urengoy – Ural Ufa 0-3 (22:25, 19:25, 23:25)
Top Scorers: Volkov 13, Dikarev 11, Bogdan 10, Zhigalov 7; Feoktistov 16, Perrin 12, Rybakov 8, Kolenkovskiy 5.

• Kuzbass Kemerovo – Zenit Kazan 3-0 (29:27, 25:23, 25:19)
Top Scorers: Zaytsev 24, Markin 13, Shcherbakov 8, Krsmanovic 7, Karpukhov 7; Voronkov 11, Volkov 10, Mikhaylov 10, Ngapeth 9.

🗓| January 11 | Round 17
• Dinamo LO – Belogorie Belgorod 3-1 (25:22, 25:13, 20:25, 28:26)
• Zenit St. Petersburg – Yugra Samotlor Nizhnevartovsk 3-0 (25:14, 25:19, 25:17)
• Gazprom Surgut – Neftyanik Orenburg 3-1 (25:20, 21:25, 26:24, 29:27)

🗓| Round 17 on February 17
• Lokomotiv Novosibirsk — Dinamo Moscow

📄| STANDINGS
Zenit Kazan 37
Kuzbass Kemerovo 34
Zenit St. Petersburg 33
Dinamo Moscow 32
Fakel Novy Urengoy 31
Lokomotiv Novosibirsk 24
Ural Ufa 23
Yenisey Krasnoyarsk 21
Yugra Samotlor Nizhnevartovsk 21
Belogorie Belgorod 16
ASK Nizhniy Novgorod 12
Neftyanik Orenburg 10
Dinamo LO 8
Gazprom Surgut 7