- I really missed the Champions League - smiled Natalya Mammadova. - Not only me, the whole of Azerbaijan waited the return of their team in the main event of European club tournaments .The whole country supports,lives with Rabita. It is a great honor, but also very big responsibility.
- According to the score, the match was not the most difficult?
- The game turned out a little bit nervous. At least - it's the first official match for Rabita, in the new season, the championship of Azerbaijan begins later. In the pre-season, we played a lot of friendly matches with strong teams, but the level of stress in the official matches are always higher. Even at full strength we have gathered on the eve of departure to Romania. Most of the preparations for the new season of "Rabita" conducted without the players teams from different countries. American Kimberly Glass joined on the eve of the World Cup. Serbian Natasha Krsmanovich and Sylvia Popovic, Croatian Mirella Delic arrived after the end of the world championship. So, we still have time to play better.
- What is the reason for a failure of Rabita`s performance at the beginning of the second set?
- The opponent was determined to give battle, but these difficulties, I would first of all explain as our misunderstanding. Sometimes the players just could not decide who should bring a simple ball and the ball fell between them. Removal of such embarrassing mistake - this is also a matter of time. But in the game against Dynamo team nature of the "Rabita" has successfully passed the test of strength, because we won the second set after 2:8 at the beginning.
- In the second game you replaced - the coach had a claim on the game?
- Actually great that "Rabita" has a long bench of players who can strengthen the team play during the match (smiling). Irina Zhukova, Olga Attivi replaced us and helped to change the result of the second set. In addition coaches are still looking for the best game understandings . For example, I was replaced by Olga Attivi, and in the third game I came back into the game,this time to replace Sanya Starovic who playes as an opposite hitter. Everyone needs to be toned in the game and each of us will surely add to shape.
- But you can stay without the title of top scorer in Champions League
- I have enough "Best Scorer" titles,now for me the most important the team title,and I will fight for that.
In the first set, Rabita trailed early, but went on a 9-2 run to build a 16:10 advantage. Dinamo tried to climb back, but the guest team stayed ahead and maintained the lead to finish the set 25:18.
In the second set, Romanians went up 8:2, and were up 16:11 by the time of the second technical timeout. From that point onward, however, it was Rabita only. Azerbaijani team led by Glass and Ativi duo steadily closed the gap and eventually took the set 25:22.
Dinamo again started the third set aggressively and were up for the most part of it, and yet again couldn't hold on to the lead and Rabita ended the match with a 25:20 victory.
Kimberly Glass paced Rabita's offense with a team-best 10 kills to go along with 3 aces and 2 block points. Natalya Mammadova connected for nine kills, while middle blocker Natasa Krsmanovic chipped in five kills and three blocks.
Alida Marcovici, Dinamo captain
"It was a very hard game for us, we had a good chance in the second set but our opponents were better than us in the key moments. They deserved the victory."
Atanas Petrov, Dinamo head coach
"We had a good start in every set, but our reception was shaky, maybe in the next match there will be more chances for us."
In the second match in the group, Italian Scavolini Pesaro defeated Polish Aluprof Bielsko-Biala 3:2 (23:25, 25:22, 25:20, 19:25, 15:12).
To watch the full match:
The Russian National team head-coach Vladimir Kuzyutkin who made his team the World Championship winner,shared his thoughts about Russian Super league and told some nice words about Azeri Super league.