“We have become hostages of this hysteria that Zenit is invincible” – Verbov on the defeat in the Final Six

The head coach of Kazan “Zenith” Alexei Verbov spoke about the reasons for the defeat in the semi-finals of the “Final Six”.

– No matter how much we wanted to remove the shackles of the favorites, unfortunately, this did not work out. And, of course, I do not relieve myself of responsibility for what happened. Mentally, we were not ready for these matches, but in my understanding, this was the main task of the coaching staff. In the modern world, it is impossible to go into a vacuum and renounce everything. We have become hostages of this hysteria that Zenit is invincible. During this year, we practically did not face any resistance. So, having received an excellent opponent in the semifinals, who had nothing to lose, who took risks and succeeded, and on the contrary, everything fell apart for us – the worst game of the season in terms of numbers – we just stopped playing volleyball: we started thinking about things which are incompatible with it. When you are a super-favorite on paper, and everything is against you that day, it puts you in a stupor. Even experienced craftsmen are not immune from this, – Verbov quotes the words “Championship”.

Kazan volleyball players lost in the semi-finals of the Final Six to Lokomotiv Novosibirsk with a score of 0:3 (23:25, 23:25, 21:25).