Ardabil, Iran, May 5, 2017 – Reigning champions Iran brushed off China in a lop-sided match 25-18, 25-15, 25-18 to top Pool E in their second playoff match at the round of the last eight teams at the SMM 2nd Asian Men’s U23 Volleyball Championship at the 6,000-seater Rezazadeh Indoor Stadium on Friday.
Entering the competition court for warm-up, China were very impressed by the passion of Iranian fans and they started to record the atmosphere within the venue. The match started before a huge crowd of around 8,000 Iranian fans. Japanese referee Ono Masato had to work much harder in this match because fans also whistled as a sign of supporting their players.
China found Iran too strong in the first two sets to go down 18-25, 15-25. They hoped to make amends in the third set by means of the opponents’ unforced errors as the Iranians became more prone with mistakes caused by tension when playing in front of home crowd. However, the Iranians still performed superbly to take a commanding 18-14 lead in the set and went on their onslaughts to win the set 25-18 and match.
Iran’s head coach Juan Cichello said after the match: “China had 50 kill blocks in their last three matches but in this match against Iran, they performed only two kill blocks against us. This is why we won this match. We continue to learn in every match we are playing because our goal is to prepare these young players for the senior level competitions in the future.”
China’s head coach Zhang Qiyong said that both sides were strong, but “Iran were better today and the great supports of fans for their team were incredible.”
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