Defending and consecutive two-time world champions Poland secured their presence in the Final Four of the 2021 FIVB Men’s Volleyball Nations League in Rimini, Italy with a 3-0 sweep of Asian winners Iran on Tuesday.
Poland downed Iran in straight sets 25-20, 25-20, 25-16 to capture their 12th win against 2 losses in the 2021 VNL to come in second place overall at the 16-team standings with 36 points, while Iran had 18 points from 5 wins against 9 losses to trail in a distant 12th position.
Jakub Kochanowski topscored with 12 points for Poland and Aleksander Sliwka assisted with 10. Morteza Mojarad led Iran with 11 points, while Bardia Saadat and Amirhossein Esfandiar added with 8 and 7 points respectively.
Iran’s Saeid Marouf said at the virtual Mixed Zone: “It’s difficult for us now, as we know that we will not stay at the tournament. Five losses in a row, so it’s hard to stay fully focused and motivated. It was not our day today, but we will do our best to play our volleyball again and to finish this tournament well with a victory tomorrow.”
Aleksander Sliwka said: “The most important thing is that we clinched the Final Four, so we are happy, because it was our goal to play for a medal, to be in the top of the tournament. Today again our opponents switched their line-up, but we also do the same, so it was hard to predict who is playing on the other side. But the goal didn’t change. We wanted to win and we did it perfectly.”
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