No better chance to have your fans closer than when you are facing Dinamo Moscow in the first home match of the season, and that was the case in Plovdiv. A sea of yellow filled the stands with exciting fans ready to support their team throughout the match.

Both teams really showed up for the match and gave it their all, which made for a fantastic viewing, especially for the neutrals watching the match on EuroVolley.tv. Despite losing the first set, Maritza Plovdiv showed great determination not to give up and winning the second set. What followed was an intense battle, in which the strongest team on the night won. Dinamo goes back to Moscow having obtained their second win in as many games, while Maritza will surely be looking to gain confidence from a strong  performance going into their 3^rd leg match away at Uralochka NTMK Ekaterinburg.

Three of Dinamo’s players, Ekaterina Efimova, Iana Manziuk and Victoriia Chaplina, were in Yenisey Krasnoyarsk’s squad two years ago, against whom Maritza achieved their historic first-time breakthrough into the pool stage of the Champions League.

Bulgarian world-class boxer Kubrat Pulev, the current mandatory challenger for IBF world heavyweight title, among many other Bulgarian sports stars in the stands of Kolodruma Sport Hall PLOVDIV, with the recently elected new mayor of Plovdiv, Zdravko Dimitrov, was among the spectators as well.

Nataliya Goncharova was Dinamo Moscow’s star player with an impressive display that saw her score 26 points. Alexandra Holston was Maritza’s best scorer with 16 points.

Vladimir Orlov, coach of Maritza PLOVDIV: "I am satisfied with our team's performance, since we managed to get into the rhythm of the match and showed that we can fight well against the likes of Dinamo MOSCOW. I would like to thank the girls for the determination they showed."

Lora Kitipova, captain of Maritza PLOVDIV: "I think we did well in following our coach's instructions. Dinamo are a world-class team, but we could have given them even more hard time. We tend to play well against Russian teams, so I hope we stand a chance against Uralochka. We have nothing to lose."

Alexander Sukomel, coach of Dinamo MOSCOW: "The match worked out well for us. Maritza played very well, especially in defense. However, in the key moments we were slightly stronger and came out victorious. It was not easy as Maritza persisted in their resistance.

Yana Shcherban, outside hitter of Dinamo MOSCOW: "Congratulations to our team for the victory! I would like to note that the team of Maritza played very well in defense and had a very good game today. It was also hard to play against them, because they attack very fast, so I am glad that we got the three points."