Urmia, Iran, August 25, 2023 – Iran on Friday cruised past China in thrilling three-setter to set up a final match with old foes Japan in the 2023 Asian Senior Men’s Volleyball Championship at Al-Ghadir Hall 1.
Chasing dream of making a historic treble quest, Iran have already claimed four Asian titles, with the last one recorded in Chiba/Funabashi, Japan in the previous edition two years ago.
With the sensational 3-0 (25-20, 25-23, 25-23) win against former three-time champions China, this will be the sixth time that Iran reached the final showdown of the Asia’s biggest biannual volleyball competition.
In their highly-anticipated clash against China, Milad Ebadipour scored 11 points for Iran including 9 attacks, while Mohammad Valizadeh and left-hander Saber Kazemi contributed 10 points apiece for the winning team. Wang Bin led China with 12 points all from attack.
Iran made a strong start and put up a good fight to win the first set 25-20. The second set was incredibly close with neither side able to break clear from the beginning, but it was the Iranians who led initially 8-6. From then, the on-going battle turned out to be a very tight contest. Iran performed superbly to clinch the hotly-contested set 25-23.
The third set was the similar script when both sides tried their best to topple each other. As Milad Ebadipour and Mohammad Valizadeh tore the Chinese defence into pieces with their mighty attacks, China dropped their rhythm and started to come up with poor reception. Iran remained in irresistible form to take three points ahead at 22-19. Despite a serious threat from China, the Iranians still had enough to hold the rivals off before winning 25-23.
With the exceptional win, Iran now go up against Japan in a final clash of the Titans, a final rematch of the previous edition, on Saturday, the last day of the one-week competition.
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