The king is dead, long live the king. This piece of royal ancestry seems appropriate for this match between VC Greenyard MAASEIK and Zenit KAZAN. For years the Russian squad dominated European volleyball, winning four straight Champions League titles in a row. But the teams has lost its invincibility, showed once more against comeback kings MAASEIK.

MAASEIK beat Halkbank last week after being behind 2-0. They repeated that magnificent effort on Wednesday in the Steengoed Arena which was filled with 2,000 Belgian fans. KAZAN had just returned from Brazil where they contested the FIVB Club World Championships and won the bronze.

For the first few sets nothing seemed to go wrong, Maxim Mikhailov and Tsvetan Sokolov were leading the troops for the Russian squad. But they didn't count on the hunger of MAASEIK's Jelte Maan and Jonas Kvalen. Maan scoring 20 for Maaseik, 7 of which were in the fifth set. Top scorer of the match was Mikhailov with 29.

MAASEIK now top Pool C with two wins from as many matches. Zenit KAZAN have only played one match and will have to chase the other teams in the group.

Jelte Maan, captain of VC Greenyard MAASEIK: “If I have to rate this victory on a scale from 1 to 10, I guess it will be around 10. It’s been an amazing win, an amazaing fight. The fact that we saved matchpoint in both our Champions League games, proves that we somehow find a way to fight. We also have to thank the guys coming in from the bench. They did a real good job.”