ITALY claimed a superb victory over Iran yesterday in their second match of the second round in the FIVB Volleyball Men’s U21 World Championship 2019.
After conceding the first two sets and then extending the match in the third, the Iranians were on the brink of forcing the tie-breaker late in the fourth set. But the Italians showed their mettle and fought back to close things out for a hard-earned 3-1 (25-23, 25-22, 20-25, 31-29) triumph.
Daniele Lavia was in fine form, scoring 24 points to lead the winners. Kristian Gamba added another 16 for Italy. For Iran, Porya Yali was the top man with 20 while skipper Amirhossein Esfandiar added 17.
Italy head coach Monica Cresta commented: “It was extremely difficult to play against Iran. From the start, we knew that it was going to be tough. In the first two sets, we played well even under pressure. In the third and fourth sets, they played absolutely better than us.
“This set that we lost against them means that we have to pay attention. It serves to make us understand that in this phase of the tournament, nothing is easy.”
Italy now have one foot in the semi-finals with a match still to play against Argentina today to conclude their second round campaign.
Meanwhile, Brazil virtually booked their final four tickets with their their second straight win while handing Russia their first loss of the competition in a 3-1 (23-25, 25-22, 25-20, 25-22) decision.
Heroics
Victor Aleksander Almeida Cardoso had 25 points to lead Brazil. Angellus Costa Da Silva added 13 in the win. Maksim Sapozhkov paced Russia with 22 points.
Brazil coach Giovane Gavio said: “We played our best volleyball today. Russia is a strong team. I am very happy because we were able to play against a big team quite well.”
China, meanwhile, bounced back from a loss the previous day with a resounding 3-0 (25-18, 25-22, 25-20) sweep of Korea in an all-Asian affair.
Chengcheng Xiu was the leading scorer for the Chinese with 13, while teammate Dejun Zhai had 12. Korea captain Donghyeok Im paced his spearheaded his team with 10 points.
China captain Chen Leiyang said: “The match was really good because we did many things to prepare. We played well today.”
Meanwhile, in the classification groups, Canada and Egypt both needed to go the distance in five-set victories over their opponents, whereas Poland and Cuba both cruised in three-setters against theirs.
The Canadians beat the Czech Republic 3-2 (25-19, 20-25, 28-26, 15-25, 17-15) while Egypt battled back from a set down to win 3-2 (25-23, 21-25, 22-25, 25-19, 15-12) against Puerto Rico. Both matches were in Pool G.
In Pool H, Poland outclassed Tunisia 3-0 (25-21, 25-16, 25-20) to secure their place in the bracket for final rankings ninth through 12th, as did Cuba, who won Cuba bt Morocco 3-0 (25-15, 25-22, 25-13) against Morocco.