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The Russian Olympic Committee pulled off one of the tournament’s biggest comebacks en route to securing its spot on the medal podium and in the gold-medal match.
Russia overcame a 20-12 deficit to win the third game in overtime as it defeated the defending gold-medalists Brazil 18-25, 25-21, 26-24, 25-23 in the Olympics men’s volleyball semifinals on Thursday in Tokyo.
Opposite Maxim Mikhaylov in the victory finished with match-high 20 kills on a .485 attack percentage. Mikhaylov had 12 of those kills and committed one attack error in the final two games, including having five kills in the third-game comeback win.
Outside attacker Egor Kliuka also had 14 kills while hitting .349 to help Russia advance to its first gold-medal match since winning the tournament in 2012.
Setter Igor Kobzar along with his team-high nine digs guided the Russian offense to out-hit Brazil .360 to .307.
Outside attacker Yoandy Leal in the loss had 17 kills on .424 attack percentage and was one of two Brazilians to record double-digit kills. Opposite Wallace De Souze contributed 10 kills but was limited to a .111 attack percentage.
Along with the Brazil pin-hitters, middle attacker Lucas Saatkamp had eight kills and led all players with four blocks.
Brazil despite the loss had eight aces — five more than Russia — with Mauricio Luiz De Souza having a match-high three aces.
Russia with this victory will advance to play France in the gold-medal match on Saturday. This will be the second meeting between the two teams at the tournament after France upset Russia in the preliminary round.
Brazil will play in the bronze-medal match against its rival Argentina, which lost to France in the semifinal match on Thursday.