Zenit-Kazan vs. Gazprom-Ugra | HIGHLIGHTS | 21 Round | SuperLeague 2025-2026

In previous rounds, Gazprom-Ugra's volleyball players caused a lot of trouble for the championship leaders, almost taking points away from Lokomotiv and Dynamo, and defeating Belogorye in a close match. Therefore, the Kazan team could not afford to underestimate their opponent. Alexey Verbov deployed a strong offensive line, while entrusting the team's play to Mikhail Vyshnikov.

In the debut of the meeting, the Kazan players blocked the Yugra team's middle blocker Alexander Kostadinov twice, and his brother Slavi Kostadinov attacked into the out – 9:6 in favor of Zenit. The guests, having withstood the initial onslaught, leveled the game, confidently accepting and placing a whole series of blocks – 13:13. The defense in the first party generally prevailed over the attack: the Kazan players realized only 40% of the attacks, and the Surgut players – 41%.

Dmitry Shevlyakov read the Zenit players' plan and blocked Roman Romanovsky's attack, giving Yugra a 18-16 lead. Dmitry Volkov's mistake in the attack and Slavi Kostadinov's ace to Mikhail Labinsky led to a significant advantage for the guests, resulting in a 21-17 score. Kirill Nikiforov's diagonal attack ended the set, with a 75% conversion rate (6/8).

A series of three accurate attacks by Labinsky allowed Zenit to powerfully start the second game on a series of serves by Maxim Mikhailov – 5:1. Kazan were looking for Alexander Kostadinov in the reception. He barely coped with Labinsky's serve and did not cope at all with Vyshnikov's serve – 10:4. In the second set, Zenit did not allow Nikiforov, the best scorer of Yugorsk, to score (0/5) and Denis Litvinov came out instead at 7:13.

After the first set, the Zenit players drew the right conclusions and played much better in attack, hitting 75% of their shots. Labinsky was particularly impressive (6/9). In the final set, Mikhailov crushed the Yugra players' defence, with an ace and a passing ball, allowing Zenit to win with a large margin of 25:15.

The Kazan players continued to press the Yugra players with their serves, forcing them to attack difficult balls from the back. The guests' captain, Alexey Rodichev, failed to cope with these situations twice, getting caught in triple blocks. Litvinov hit an out, and Nikiforov took his place and also hit an out. Immediately after these two mistakes, Vyshnikov scored his third ace of the match, giving Kazan a two-point lead at 12:6.

The introduction of a second setter did not help Yugra improve their attack performance (27%), as Kazan continued to block or defend effectively. Zenit's libero Ilya Fyodorov played flawlessly, and Mikhailov excelled in the attack. Andrey Surmachevsky successfully replaced Volkov and ended the game with a pip score of 25:17.

Slavi Kostadinov and Nikiforov's aces allowed the guests to lead 9:5 in the fourth set. Verboff had to make changes: Konstantin Abaev replaced Vyshnikov, and Alexey Kononov replaced Artem Volvich. It was on the serves of these two players that the Kazan team began to score break points and tied the score after Surmachevsky's block on Nikiforov - 14:14.

However, the guests had already caught the courage and fought desperately for every ball. Mikhailov made a mistake on the serve and immediately on the reception – his counterpart Nikiforov found him with his serve. And again, Ugra went ahead by +3. Kazan not only won back, but also took the lead on a series of Surmachevsky's serves with an ace – 19:18. Zenit players in this segment more than once delighted their fans with tenacious defense. At the very end of the set, Abayev knocked the guests out of the reception with his gliders. He hit an ace to libero Alexander Moiseev (22:21), and Mikhailov blocked Alexander Kostadinov (23:21). Two more mistakes from Nikiforov and Slavi Kostadinov prevented the guests from fighting for a tiebreaker.

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