On Thursday, Iran will meet Czechia in a duel for a spot in the semis
Iran survived a five-set saga against Serbia to progress to the quarterfinals of the 2025 FIVB Volleyball Men’s World Championship in the Philippines. In the last eighthfinal in Pasay City on Tuesday, the Asian squad came back from a set down twice during the game to dominate the tie-breaker and celebrate victorious. Iran will take on Czechia in one of the two quarterfinal matches set to take place on Thursday, September 25.
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Serbia started breaking away in the score after 10-10 in the first set and the gap went as wide as five points at 19-14 before Iran attempted a comeback. At the end of the set, they denied two Serbian set points to get back to within one, but on the third, outside hitter Pavle Peric finished it off with a pulverizing high-flying pipe shot.
Set two stayed competitive through 17-17 and this time it was Iran who broke away, dominated the money time and took the set by a six-point margin to level the match. The third set was a real rollercoaster, with the lead changing hands several times. Even after a 20-15 Serbian advantage, Iran found a way to level up and reach the first set point. The European team reacted with three in a row, crowned by middle blocker Aleksandar Stefanovic’s blistering ace that closed the set in the overtime. The teams kept the heat up in set four as well.
Iran’s swinging effort proved more fruitful in the end as they persevered through the dramatic epilog to level up again with outside and captain Morteza Sharifi nailing the set winner. The Asians stormed the tie-breaker on a 4-1 run and never looked back to get the job done with a 3-2 (23-25, 25-19, 24-26, 25-22, 15-9) victory.
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Iran’s more prolific offense produced 67 spike kills against 60 from Serbia and made the biggest difference towards the outcome. They also outdid the opponents in serving, by 5-4 in aces, and in precision, by 24-27 in unforced errors. Morteza put up three kill blocks and fired two aces, while swinging at a 56% success rate, to lead the team’s scorers together with opposite Ali Hajipour on 23 points apiece. The latter put away an ace and spiked at a 52% success rate. 20-year-old outside Ali Haghparast, who subbed in for Poriya Khanzadeh, contributed another 18 points, while middle blocker Mohammad Valizadeh chipped in with another 10, including four blocks.
“The game was so tough! Serbia did a great job and pushed until the end, but we were her to win,” Morteza told VBTV. “I would like to thank all the players, because with their help I was able to show a good performance. We were together and believed that we could win this match.”
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Serbia matched Iran in blocking, with 13 stuffs a side. Their opposite Drazen Luburic produced a match-high 27 points. Outside hitter Miran Kujundzic added another 17. Middle blocker Aleksandar Nedeljkovic and outside Pavle Peric also reached the double digits with 13 and 12 points, respectively.
“In the fourth set, we had a lot of chances to close the match. It was in our hands, but we were not able to kill. In such games, a couple of balls can change a lot,” commented Serbia’s Romanian head coach Gheorghe Cretu.
“It hasn’t been such a great year, but we restarted and, at the beginning, we suffered a lot. These were the first four games together for the guys, who played at this tournament. I am happy that they kept together really strong and they showed that we are able to rebuild and have a really strong group.”
The quarterfinal round in Pasay City will get underway on Wednesday. At 15:30 local time (07:30 UTC), Italy and Belgium will lock horns again, this time for a place in the semifinals. The second quarterfinal, between Poland and Turkiye, will serve off at 20:00 (12:00).
2025 FIVB Volleyball Men’s World Championship: full schedule and results
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