The Russian men’s volleyball team advanced to the Olympic semi-finals with a 3-1 victory over Bulgaria yesterday that was marred by controversy.
Russia went up 20-15 in the second set after a spike by Bulgaria’s Plamen Konstantinov was ruled out. Bulgarian coach Martin Stoev was warned after complaining to the referees, pointing to the replay on the video scoreboard.
Stoev got a yellow card for the outburst and Russia were awarded another point.
PHOTO: AP
Russia went on to win the set on Yury Berezhko’s block.
“I’m a little bit disappointed about some of the refereeing decisions made during the set. There were three points in a row that he gave to Russia. The referee called me over and said that our coach would get a yellow card if he continued to talk to the second referee and after I turned around he gave the coach a yellow card,” Konstantinov said. “This gave Russia the chance to wake up. It was the most important moment of the match.”
The Bulgarians, despite the constant urging of middle blocker Evgeni Ivanov, could not mount any kind of rally. Russia won it 20-25, 25-16, 25-22, 25-21 on Sergey Tetyukhin’s successful block of Konstantinov’s spike.
Russia, ranked second in the world behind Brazil, will play the winner of the day’s late match between the US and Serbia.
Earlier, Italy defeated Poland 25-19, 25-22, 18-25, 26-28, 17-15 to set up a semi-final match-up with defending Olympic champions Brazil, who easily eliminated China 25-17, 25-15, 25-16.
Brazil beat Italy in the final in Athens four years ago.
Earlier, Bulgaria’s run was marked by drama involving Konstantinov. The Bulgarian captain missed the team’s first three matches while he went home to Bulgaria to take a drug test, after rumors swirled about possible doping.
Anger over what transpired in the second set against Russia only added to the Olympic odyssey for the Bulgarians.
“I do not understand it,” Konstantinov said, shaking his head.
The Bulgarian captain has said Beijing would be his last Olympic Games.
Maxim Mikhaylov led Russia with 17 points, while Matey Kaziyski had 24 for Bulgaria.
Russia won the bronze medal in the 2004 Athens Olympics.
The Polish team, who upset Russia in five sets in the preliminary round, were cheered by a large and boisterous section of fans, many waving flags. Every time the Italian fans tried to rally their team with chants of “Italia” the Polish group would drown them out with a “Polska” chant.
Poland forced a deciding set when Michal Winiarski aced to give Poland the fourth. The tense final was even at 15-15, when Valerio Vermiglio’s hit was unreturned and Matteo Martino’s successful spike won the match.
Even home court advantage failed to lift the Chinese, who had played their first Olympics in 24 years.
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