Volleyball Nations League:
Iran returns to winning ways, revives last-eight ambitions
Iran bounced back from a setback against Poland to beat China 3-0 (28-26, 25-21, 25-16) in Week 3 of the FIVB Men’s Volleyball Nations League in Gdansk on Friday.
Stepping into the game less than 24 hours after an exhausting five-set battle against the European powerhouse, Roberto Piazza’s men showed remarkable resilience to secure a fifth win in the preliminaries and stay in contention for a place in the VNL Finals.
The straight-set victory left Iran in the ninth spot of the 18-team table with 16 points with two rounds of fixtures remaining in the preliminary round. The top seven of the table will join host China in the Finals – starting with the quarterfinals in Ningbo on July 30.
Morteza Sharifi produced yet another prolific performance with a game-high 15 points – including three aces – while fellow outside-hitter Amirhossein Esfandiar and star opposite Amin Esmaeilnejad also finished in double figures for Iran, chipping in 12 and 10 points respectively.
China had team captain and opposite Jiang Chuan as the leading scorer with 11 points, one more than middle blocker Li Yongzhen.
“This match was very important for us,” Esfandiar said in an on-court interview. “Before the match, our coach told us that we had three finals to play because we want to qualify for the Finals. We won the first one, now there are two more to come and we’ll use the day off tomorrow to prepare for them.”
Next for Esfandiar and his teammates is a formidable test in reigning Olympic and VNL champion France today, before Iran concludes the preliminary campaign against Bulgaria at Gdansk’s Ergo Arena on Sunday.
“Today we should celebrate, but we must also focus and prepare for our next match against France – which will be extremely tough. As I’ve said before, it will be a second final for Iran,” Piazza said of today’s showdown.
Pleased to have a full day of recovery for his players, the Italian coach said: “Tomorrow we’ll need to recover some players –Pourya [Hosseinkhanzadeh] wasn’t fully fit, so he didn’t play today and needs more rest. Other guys like Morteza, who really pushed themselves to the limit, also need recovery time. I don’t want Morteza to train tomorrow. We probably won’t have an intense session, but we still need to practice. That’s just how it works – if you want to win, you’ve got to put in the work.”