Kazan, Russia, June 3, 2017 - France overcome Russia for a 3-1 (25-13, 25-20, 22-25, 25-21) victory in their second World League clash in Kazan with
Stephen Boyer,
Trevor Clevenot and
Julien Lyneel showcasing their scoring skills in front of 5,800 spectators.
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Boyer was the best scorer of the match with 18 points. Clevenot, Lyneel and Russia’s
Maxim Zhigalov followed close behind with 17 points each.
This win gives France a 6-5 edge in the head-to-head encounters with Russia in the World League.
From the early beginning the game rhythm of the Russian team was disrupted due to a couple of errant attacks. Good blocking from France widened the gap to 12-3. Russian wing spiker
Denis Biriukov narrowed it down to 13-6 with a block-out shot, but Julien Lyneel and
Kevin Le Roux split the Russian block again and again for 16-6. France held on to their lead and did not allow Russia to recover – 25-13.
In the second set, the French block-defence system touched almost every ball, but
Ilia Vlasov and Denis Biriukov started to work and Russia put all efforts to tie the game - 8-8. With
Benjamin Toniutti series of fast distributions and
Nicolas Le Goff’s attacks from the wings, France took a 16-13 lead. Russia tried to respond with the back court spikes of
Egor Kliuka, but the opponents controlled the game and forced Russia to attack out for 25-20 France’s way.
In the beginning of the third set both teams started to trade points with France making fewer mistakes in serving. The two teams attacked aggressively and showed great skills in defence, especially by the liberos – France’s
Jenia Grebennikov and Russia’s
Roman Martynyuk. Russia went 16-13 ahead with blasting spikes from Maxim Zhigalov and blocks from Ilia Vlasov keeping the advantage through to the final 25-22.
The Russian players took an early advantage in the fourth set leading by 8-6 at the first technical time-out. France's Julien Lyneel and Kevin Le Roux troubled the Russian defence again and again, turning the score around to 16-14 in favour of France. Devastating spikes by Egor Kliuka and Denis Biriukov somewhat improved Russia’s situation towards the end of the set, but the French team kept more concentrated - 25-21.