Iran in flying form for U21 World Championship
Iran will be looking to build on its impressive form when getting its campaign underway at the FIVB Men’s U21 World Championship in Manama on Friday.
Gholam-Reza Momeni Moqaddam’s 12-man squad entered the Bahraini capital on Tuesday on the back of fine performances in a couple of friendlies in Bulgaria.
The Asian powerhouse came out on top in four sets against USA before defeating the home side 3-2 (17-25, 25-20, 25-22, 19-25, 15-13) on Monday.
Iran also played Brazil in Sofia but the game, tied at one set apiece, came to an immature end midway through the third set after a horrible injury for Iranian Yousef Kazemi, who returned to Tehran for treatment on his injured leg.
Having missed out on a place in the quarterfinals in 2021, Iran will be chasing a second world title in Bahrain in four years in after a victory over Italy in a five-set thriller in Riffa sealed a maiden trophy for the country in 2019 under Behrouz Ataei – now in charge of the seniors’ team at the Volleyball Nations League.
Erfan Norouzi, Arshia Behnejad, Sajjad Jelodarian, Shayan Sepehrifard, Mobin Nasri, Pendar Momeni Moqaddam, Younes Javan, Amirmohammad Golzadeh, Ali Haqparast, Amirhossein Sadati, Pouria Hosseinpour, and Mehdi Bayati will be the Iranian players in Manama, who will open their Pool A campaign against Thailand.
Iran will take on Tunisia before squaring off against the host in the final round of the group fixtures on Sunday.
The top two of each group will progress to the last-eight round.
Defending champion Italy and four-time winner Brazil are in Pool B – also featuring Egypt and Mexico – with Poland, Bulgaria, Canada, and India in Pool C.
Argentina, Belgium, the Czech Republic and USA complete the lineup in Pool D.