Belo Horizonte, Brazil: Both defending champions Sada Cruzeiro and Wildcard Qatar’s Al Rayyan registered important victories on the second day of FIVB Men’s Club World Championship at Belo Horizonte.
The home team prevailed over Iran’s Matin Varamin and is atop of Pool A, followed by Belogorie Belgorod from Russia, which had to struggle for a win over Guaynabo Mets from Puerto Rico.
As for Al Rayyan, they defeated Esperance Tunis to become Pool B leaders.
Sada Cruzeiro managed to get a win with an uneven performance, especially in reception, but in the end it was all joy after the 3-0 (25-22, 25-16, 25-21).
This time, top scorer Wallace De Souza, who nailed 17 points, had the backup of both Yoandy Leal and Luis Díaz, with 12 points each.
Just as the local team, Qatar’s Al Rayyan also took another step towards the semi-finals, but it wasn’t an easy task against Esperance Tunis.
The African champion almost pulled out a major surprise as they led until the 23th point of the first set, but it slipped away and Al Rayyan grew stronger from there on, to a 3-0 victory (28-26, 25-18, 25-21).
Esperance had the best scorer of the match, as Hichem Kaabi nailed 20 kills, but Al Rayyan emerged as the winner with 16 points from Matey Kaziyski, 15 from Michael Sánchez Bozhulev and a solid performance at the net from captain Ali Bahrami, with 5 blocks.
“During the game, we tried to slowly find ourselves” said Al Rayyan coach Igor Arbutina, as his team can enter the semifinals if UPCN from Argentina beats Trentino.
Meanwhile, Esperance coach Foued Kamoun was proud despite the result: “We were capable to show the Tunisian and the African volleyball to the whole world.”
The other Day 2 winner was Belogorie Belgorod from Russia, which successfully achieved a first Club World Championship victory, over a resilient squad of Guaynabo Mets. Puerto Rican champions were able to win the third set in a great display of spirit, however the game ended in Russian hands, by 3-1 (25-17, 25-19, 22-25, 25-19). With the win, Belogorie Belgorod will arrive with a share of confidence to the main clash against Sada Cruzeiro.
ThePeninsula
