Jiangmen, China, January 9, 2020 – Iran pulled off a scintillating straight-set win against hosts China to remain unbeaten at the AVC Men’s Tokyo Qualification at the Jiangmen Sports Centre Gymnasium here on Thursday.
The hard-fought 25-22 25-20 25-21 win gave the Asian champions and world No.8 a clean sweep in Pool A and became the only team in this top-flight tournament which have yet to lose a single set to their respective rivals.
Against China in their last preliminary match, Iran fielded a formidable lineup with the likes of Purya Fayazi, Mir Saeid Marouflakrani, Seyed Mohammad Mousavi Eraghi, Shahram Mahmoudi and Milad Ebadipour. The host side also sent in a team loaded with experience and form including Dai Qingyao, Jiang Chuan, Ji Daoshual, Liu Libin and Zhang Zhejia.
The first set was closely contested from the very beginning as both sides made a strong start with almost the same level. Liu Libin and Ji Daoshual combined well in attacking aggressively, but Iran pushed them to the limit with well-timed blocks and great fightback. Iran took the close set 25-22.
Iran still came up with an incredible form offensively and defensively in the second set. Mahmoudi uncorked a barrage of thundering attacks, foiling the Chinese blocking attempts. As Iran were leading 21-18, China regrouped and hit back, but the strong visitors bounced back to pull clear. Some more sensational defending from Iran kept them comfortably in front and never looked back since then. Iran claimed the second set 25-20.
Though cheered on by flag-waving home spectators, China seemed to play with backs against the wall in the third set. With Mahmoudi and Fayazi in particularly on good form, Iran chipped in with a few big spikes and powerful jump serves to lead 19-13 and stretch it to 24-19. In his last-ditch effort, Liu Libin produced a deceptive drop and a thundering attack to save two match points for China before a sharp shot from Porya Yali entirely ended the host challenge. Iran captured the thrilling set 25-21 and match.
As expected, Iran captured the top spot in Pool A with 9 points from three wins in a row, while China came in second place with 5 points from two wins against one loss. Chinese Taipei finished third with four points from one win against two losses, with winless Kazakhstan in fourth place with no point.
China head coach Shen Fulin: “As far as I am concerned, China is a new team and some players in the roster haven’t had experience in international tournaments. As we know, the semi-finals must be a hard fight which requires more players on court rather than individual ability. So for the sake of the next following matches, we did some adjustment on the formation today to have an assessment of the squad’s performance.”
China captain Jiang Chuan: “The competition was quite tense at the beginning and middle stage in every set, but compared with our opponents, we were not mature enough in dealing with the balls at the net. Iran always dominate volleyball in Asia. We consider them as our role model, and I’m very happy to learn from them.”
Iran head coach Serbian Igor Kolakovic: “Today I think it’s better for both teams to save more energy for the semi-finals. I believe my team did well today except some mistakes at the beginning, but we gradually controlled the game with reception, first attack as well as in defense.”
Iran captain Mir Saeid Marouflankrani: “As both teams have already made it to the semi-finals, we have enough time to think about the next match against Korea since we have one day off to recover both physically and mentally. We know Korea is good at defense as we had very tough games during the Asian Games. I’m sure the semi-finals would also be tough but we are confident to confront the challenge.”
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