Volgograd make the best of the end of their Champions League season.
Dinamo bids farewell
Last weekend Dinamo Volgograd lost its last chance to reach the semi-finals of the Champions League. Now, all focus is on the final sixth-round game in the group, as the Russians wish to bid farewell to the Champions League with an impressive performance.
Last Saturday, title holder Viborg HK defeated the Russians with the final score of 35:28. The game had already been decided in the first half, where the team of Jakob Vestergaard built-up a six goal advantage due to his team’s concentrated game plan and the superb fast-breaks of his wingers.
Afterwards it was clear to the Russian media why Dinamo lost: they missed far too many clear-cut chances and also struggled to score from 7-meters, missing four times.
Besides these key factors, only team leaders Anna Kochetova and Olga Levina contributed well to the game. The others didn’t even come close to matching the performance of the two main pillars of Victor Ryabykh’s team.However, at Dinamo the officials are pleased with the result in this year’s Champions League, as the team returned after many years absence to the league. Now they belong to the best eight clubs in the world and even had good chances to achieve even more.
For the Russian side, the Champions League will be over on Friday when the Russians face Hypo-NÖ in Maria Enzersdorf, Austria, to decide third place in the group. For Dinamo, a draw will be enough to secure this position in Group 2.
From then on Dinamo will focus exclusively on the Russian league, where they’re in front and wish to defend their title from last season. Their main opponent is Evgeny Trefilov’s Zvezda Zvenigorod, which is worryingly close behind.
TEXT:
Márk Hegedüs