«Zilant» went on a break as the absolute leader

The first victory over Ufa in history

The matches against the Belgorod team were not particularly difficult. Except that in the first half of the first game, the Kazan team had to make an effort, as the guests did not let them go for a long time, and only by the end of the half the score was 19:12. But the difference in the class of the teams is such that there was no doubt about the final result.

As a result, the Kazan team leads a group of six teams, having played 12 matches, scored 23 points and is three points ahead of «Rostov-Don». The matches against them, scheduled for March 7 and 8, will complete the regular championship for the Kazan team, and these will be home matches. The most important matches will be in Rostov-on-Don. The Kazan team won twice in early November with scores of 31:28 and 30:23, securing a comfortable advantage. However, the championship calendar pitted «Zilant» against the Ufa «Akbuzat» in a Tatar-Bashkir derby. And at that time, the Kazan team had no victories in history against the Ufa club. As a result, on the first day of the double confrontation, they failed to win again, and a draw of 39:39 was recorded. Despite the fact that Roman Makrishin, who was raised in Kazan but played for the home team for the first time, joined the Kazan team in this game. He had an injury at the beginning of the season, and the Kazan team beat Rostov without him.

The Ufa team also had a legendary player, whose return was interesting for handball fans to watch. This is 36-year-old midfielder Dmitry Kireev, who is remembered for playing for Voronezh, Krasnodar and Rostov-on-Don. After returning to Ufa, he ended his career, becoming a coach of the local reserve team, but this season the Ufa team decided to do without a reserve team, and Kireev decided that he still had some spark left, providing some invisible competition to his namesake Viktor Kireev, who at the age of 37 defends the gates of the St. Petersburg «Zenit».

You can only worry about losing a point without looking at the course of that match. The first half was lost with a score of 18:20. During the second half, the guests' advantage grew, the score was 27:23. The Kazan team managed to equalize the score 34:34, after which the game went with a constant goal advantage for the Ufa team. At the decisive moment, the Kazan goalkeeper Viktor Nikolaev blocked a penalty, after which his teammates equalized the score, and when the Kazan team had a penalty at the end, its implementation led to a final draw. Also, in the second match there was a penalty that influenced the course of events. The Kazan team was winning at the end of the first half — 19:16, and the Ufa team had a chance to reduce the score gap by converting a penalty. But this did not happen, and from the beginning of the second half, the home team took the lead and confidently brought the game to victory — 34:27, which became a kind of historical milestone, as the first victory in the history of the games.

Was the exit from the Cup «planned»?

This victory was achieved on November 23, and the Kazan team ended the difficult November with a match in Rostov-on-Don in the Russian Cup. And here the «Zilants» suffered their first defeat of the season — 24:29, perhaps assuming that the Cup troubles, which include not only matches, but also flights and travels, would be of no use to them in the future. After all, after the New Year, they will have eight more matches with a very difficult trip to Ufa. Unlike the football «Rubin», where elimination from the Cup competition threatens to lead to a change in the coaching staff, handball has completely different priorities.

At the same time, handball, along with hockey, remains the last sport where «Bashkirs» and «Tatars» compete. In the history of «Akbuzat», there is already a moment when they prevented «Zilant» from reaching the superleague, being stronger in direct confrontation. Now there is a chance to interfere indirectly, since in the game against Rostov, the Ufa team looked very pale, losing in a head-to-head confrontation by a difference of eight and nine goals. In 2026, the Ufa team, which is three points behind Rostov, will host them at home at the end of January, and will play against Kazan at the end of February, while being six points behind the «Zilants».

Both of our competitors have a team competing in the women's league. While the renowned «Rostov-Don» team is leading, «Ufa-Alisa» will have to solve the problem of staying in the superleague. However, it is necessary to clarify that only reserves and teams representing Olympic reserve schools compete in the top league, which are unlikely to dream of rising to the superleague level. There is only one independent team there, representing the town of Seltso in the Bryansk region. And even though in handball it is a notable entity, as double Olympic champion Valery Gopin and Olympian Olga Kolosova-Chechkova, who played for the Slovenian national team, grew up there, it is still hard to believe in the ability of the girls to move to the superleague. Although handball is historically a sport in which high-level teams emerged almost in regional towns, such as Beregovo in Transcarpathia, Ukraine, or Nevinnomyssk, and in more recent times, Zvenigorod. Therefore, the Bashkirs should not worry about the relegation of the women's team, but it would be naive to expect the return of the men's team to the superleague.

Greetings from the former players

It is possible that the victory of the Rostov team in the Cup was also caused by the additional motivation of a quartet of players, such as goalkeepers Dmitry Chernomashentsev and Egor Shimoenkov, and field players Maxim Vasiliev and Danil Gumyanov. Previously, they played for the Kazan team, and the desire to prove themselves or take moral revenge is often no less motivating than the status of a derby.

The first team with which «Zilant» played all four matches in the regular season was the Belgorod «Tekhnolog-Spartak», and in December the Kazan team visited this student team. The men's volleyball superclub plays in Tula, the football «Salut-Belgorod», leading in the second league B, held home matches in Stary Oskol. For the MHK «Belgorod», competing in the National Youth Hockey League, the Belgorod team found an interesting solution. When visiting for two away games, they play two more games on the opponent's court, but these are considered home games. If this is not possible, the Belgorod team hosted rivals in Krasnodar and Michurinsk, Tambov region. Only the men's handball team played home games at their home arena, the BGTU named after V.G. Shukhov.

Since Belgorod is in fourth place, it is possible that the Kazan team will play on the same court again, but already in the framework of the second round-robin tournament, which will continue the season after March. Curiously, the Kazan team hosted the home match against Ufa at the «Bustan» sports complex, built for the Kazan Universiade and meeting international standards, including трибуны for spectators. The same venue will most likely host «Rostov-Don». But the Kazan team will now hold games with less important rivals in the gym of the Rowing Sports Center, a structural unit of the Volga Region University of Sports, of which the handball club can now be considered a subdivision.

Kazan handball is the Volga Region University of Sports

Rector of the sports university Rafis Burganov noted: «We must thank Rustam Nurgalievich Minnikhanov for the targeted subsidies we received for the renovation of sports facilities. If previously the local hotel «Regata» resembled a hostel, now it is a real three-star hotel. In addition, we built three saunas at «Regata», and this is extremely important in terms of recovery after training».

A certain shift in priorities at the Volga Region University of Sports has led to student football and mini-football, basketball and ice hockey taking a back seat, while the men's volleyball team remains a platform that helps nurture players for the legendary «Zenit-Kazan». Even while currently occupying third place in the top league A, the volleyball academics, who confidently won twice in Barnaul this weekend, are not ready to aim for promotion to the superleague. And only the «Zilants», in their fourth attempt, are ready to overcome any obstacles.

It would be possible to combine four independent clubs from the top league with a dozen from the superleague without complicating the current tournament regulations, which somewhat resembles field hockey, developing in Russia as an afterthought. Anyway, both teams from Omsk, which won the ticket to the superleague from Kazan, and from Volgograd, which retained a place in the league of the strongest, are at the bottom of the superleague table.