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Arena Di Monza hosted the first-leg semifinal duel between Vero Volley Monza and Zenit Kazan. The visiting side totally dominated on the court in the opener, and the home side couldn't find an answer for perfectly playing rivals. Thanks to really good reception, Micah Christenson could set the ball to any of his teammates, what he actually did, leading a well-balanced game that resulted in a 25-14 set win.

The team under guidance of coach Massimo Ecchieli started to visibly improve their game in the second set. The hosts led by Gyorgy Grozer (5 points) took courage, but even if they didn't let the opponents run away for a few-point lead it was still not enough. Especially, that the second set was a brilliant performance by Dmitrii Volkov, who scored as many as seven points (86% of success in attack).

The hosts, sparked by their fans present at the venue, were motivated to prolong the game and it resulted by a fierce head-to-head race at the beginning of the third set. From 8-8 with Milan Katic on serve and Grozer successfully spiking, the Italian team took an 11-8 lead. The Russian side tried to fight back, but Vero Volley were quickly re-building their advantage. Leading 22-17 in the decisive part, they closed the set with Gianluca Galassi's spike.

The Italian side managed to jump to a two-point lead at 7-5. But the players from Zenit Kazan were highly-motivated to leave Italy with three points. They erased the gap and regained control on the court. From 13-12, they scored six in a row improving their advantage to 19-13 and never looked back. Dmitrii Volkov topped the scorers' chart with 19 points and was named MVP of the game. Monza's leader Gyorgy Grozer had 18 points to his name.