With great difficulty: Russia beat Ukraine in the playoffs of the men's volleyball European championship

The playoffs have begun at the men's European Volleyball Championship, which is taking place these days, and the very first match of the 1/8 finals received a bright sign.

The key stage of the tournament was opened by the national teams of Russia and Ukraine, and they were to meet in Poland, at the Ergo-Arena stadium in Gdansk.

This confrontation received particular importance not so much from a sports point of view, but from a near-political point of view. Only this summer, several scandals broke out in which athletes from two countries were involved. Fans either discuss joint photographs of Maria Lasitskene and Yaroslava Maguchikh, or Igor Tsvetov's refusal to stand next to the Russian Paralympians, or the absence of the Ukrainian national team at the World Beach Football Championship in Moscow, or Alexander Petrakov's principles for the selection of the national team. Now volleyball has been added to the potentially dangerous topics.

The fact that the national teams of Russia and Ukraine will intersect in the playoffs of the European Championship became known only after all the matches of Group C, in which the silver medalists of the Olympic Games in Tokyo, played. Wards of Tuomas Sammelvuo, in most cases, had to meet with a pretty decent team in Serbia. But after the Finns beat the Turks in five sets in a meeting that meant nothing to them, the Russians moved up to second place in the group. The rival for its owners was the Ukrainian national team.

Previously, the two teams rarely met on the volleyball court. The class of the two teams after the collapse of the USSR was incomparable, and the last opportunity to play came in 2005. But recently, the Ukrainian team has made progress to declare itself at least at the European level. Suffice it to say that two years ago, Ugis Krastins' wards at their first in 14 years Old World Championship reached the quarterfinals and ended up in seventh. The Russians then took fifth place.

The Ukrainian team could not be underestimated also because several players from the leading European championships gathered in it. Its leader, Oleg Plotnitsky, stands for the Italian Perugia, the central blocker Dmitry Teremenko plays in the French championship for the Tour, and Yan Ereschenko and Ilya Kovalev represent Russian clubs. All of them, moreover, got good motivation before the 1/8 finals match - in the event of a victory over Russia, the team would receive 10 million hryvnia (about 27 million rubles. -

).

The first set began with an equal fight between Sammelvuo and Krastins' wards. At the same time, the attack of the Ukrainian national team was inactive for a long time, and after several rallies, the Russians began to use this to create a reserve of three or four points. Yegor Klyuka attacked steadily, and Pavel Pankov had no problems with serving. But it was not possible to keep this gap. On the block, the Ukrainians acted very efficiently, and Yuri Semenyuk managed not only to extinguish Russian attacks, but he himself was not averse to breaking through at the first pace. 14:10 in favor of the Olympic silver medalists quickly turned into 14:14 and gave a nervous ending to the game.

The score remained equal until Kluka's two mistakes led to an alarming situation for the Russian fans. To win the set, the Ukrainians had to score two points, and one of them brought Pankov with an unsuccessful attack. Sammelvuo did not take a time-out, but Krastins did it for him. After that Dmitry Viyetsky put an end to the game - 25:22.

The Russian national team started the second set more confidently than the first. On serving Dmitry Volkov managed to come off by five points, and Kluka returned the confidence necessary for the diagonal. The mistakes of the Russians boiled down to quite excusable flaws in the serve, which no longer allowed the Ukrainian team, which still had not adjusted the game in attack, to hope for salvation. From time to time, Krastins' wards played interesting and cunning rallies that confused the Russians, but for a long time such tactics could not work. At the end of the set, Kluka played again. Two aces helped win the game by nine points - 25:16.

After the break, an unpleasant incident occurred with Kluka. He collided with libero Valentin Golubev, trying to pick up the ball from the floor, and nearly twisted his left elbow. Fortunately, there was no serious injury. But the possible loss of the leading player clearly scared the national team. Klyuka himself immediately made a mistake in serving, and then two consecutive attacks of the Russians crashed against Semenyuk's block. Sammelvuo had to spend both timeouts early, to no avail. The Ukrainians guarded the four-point lead for a long time, until the Russians won it back at once. This sudden pursuit ended with an extremely rare block for the team by Ilyas Kurkaev.

The Russians could not get an advantage in the score for a long time, until Ivan Yakovlev spent an excellent segment.

His block and ace allowed the story to finally be two points apart, when the set was already coming to an end.

The Ukrainians fought to the last, but nevertheless Igor Kobzar got the set point with a gorgeous first pace, after which the double block of the Russians ended the game in their favor - 25:22.

The fourth set turned out to be the most intense.

Almost throughout its entire length, no team managed to win more than two points.

Kluka was able to reverse this tendency, performing an excellent power serve, followed by a sharp attack from Dmitry Volkov, from whom permanent danger began to emanate only in the end.

Ukrainian volleyball players continued to resist desperately, sometimes demonstrating real miracles - in one of the moments Ereshchenko saved a ball that had already flown out of billboards, which in the end even brought a point. Still, the fourth set was left for the Russians - 25:22. Sammelvuo's wards advanced to the quarterfinals, where their next rival will be either Poland or Finland, already familiar from the group stage.