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Ex-Soviet derby is the biggest match of the day

Ukraine and Belarus are the favourites to advance to the next qualifying round, alongside the Netherlands

The Ukrainians come to Almere "by punishment", and their only goal is advancing to the third round. Why by punishment? Their opponents in the first round were Montenegro, Macedonia and Albania, and coach Filippov had every reason to hope for a first-place finish. They took down Montengro and Albania without major problems, but were "slapped" by Macedonia and first position remained just a dream.

For this mission, Ukraine are once again a miniature version of Lokomotiv Kharkiv. Selector Filippov is also Lokomotiv coach so he didn't have many unknown things about his squad. So Ukraine's preparation period should be observed as Lokomotiv's preparation period. Therefore, the Ukrainians had the longest and the most quality preparation period of all Almere teams. In all objectivity, Ukraine is a team that is worthy of the third round; ever since the initiation of the Russian Superleague, Lokomotiv have been reaching the playoffs without major problems, and we are talking about the strongest league in the world. We are not sure whether last season Superleague's best scorer and the new opposite of Dynamo Moscoy Sergey Tyutlin is also coming to Almere, but even without him Ukraine are a decent team. 

Belarus have recently finished their Eurovolley appearance. Their goal was to pass the group stage, but Denmark stood on their way. By losing all three matches, they said goodbye to the second round. 

- Qualifying for the Eurovolley itself is a major thing. I keep saying that because it is true, and we didn't advance solely because of all kinds of mental plays on the Danes' behalf - said coach Viktor Sidelnikov after returning from Denmark.

Sidelnikov was unlucky to see his setter Haramykin get injured against Italy. He worsened his old finger injury and did not have the best of games against Denmark. However, Haramykin will be among those going to Almere. 

The Belarus team went from Denmark straight to Lida, where they had their preparation period. They are still missing their middle blocker Udrys, who is recovering from shoulder injury. So the team is basically unchanged compared to the Eurovolley squad.

- It is no secret that we, as well as the Dutch, timed our form for Eurovolley, whereas other teams timed it for these qualifiers. We may not be in the best of shapes, but we are determined to fight for a place that takes us to the final qualifying round, where we objectively belong. The players were depressed after losing to Denmark, but I believe they forgot about that and we are facing a hard tournament in the Netherlands - concluded Sidelnikov. 

Ukraine is not without chances today, I give them at least 50% chance to win this match, but the current rates don't reflect that. They are in their best lineup here, there are no unknowns between the players and they have been preparing for these qualifications for a long time. On the other hand, Belarusians are in action since the beginning of June and last week they played on Eurovolley where they didn't do well and dropped out of the group phase. Together with the exhausting pace, there is also the setter Haramykin who has problems with finger injury and it was obvious in the last match that it causes him great trouble. It is actually a surprise that he came to Almere. To a certain degree, this match can be looked on from the perspective of Ukraine-Belarus matches of their clubs, Lokomotiv Kharkov on one side and Shakhtar Soligorsk and Stroitel Minsk on the other. That is where the Ukrainians are much more successful. The Ukrainian players are certainly fresher, psychologically more relaxed than Belarusians and there is also a certain amount of tiredness among Belarusians because of the whole summer spent on the road. The Belarusian coach said himself that they timed their performance for Eurovolley and that should be another advantage for Ukraine. The bet is widely available and there should be no problems with payments.