Italy beats Iran with straight sets in FIVB World League

Italian volleyball players beat Iran’s national team in straight sets Saturday evening at the 2016 FIVB World League.

The Azzurri sealed an emphatic win in the third week of the tournament by defeating Iran 3-0 (25-20, 25-20, and 25-21) in a Pool I1 match played at the Azadi Sports Complex in Tehran.

The players from both teams looked confident and strong-minded as they came out on the court. They started the match with vim and vigor, with Persians counting on the home support to help them achieve victory.

The visitors slammed fine spikes and blocked the ball well as the hosts were seeking to notch up points. The Italians took an early lead over the Persians at last, and entered the first technical time-out 8-4.

The Iranians then narrowed the gap to 13-11, before the opposite side regained its four-point advantage at the second technical time-out and both teams went out 16-12 for a breather.

The Italians then availed themselves of the Iranians’ individual mistakes to close out the set at 25-20.

The hosts featured a dazzling performance in the opening minutes of the second set, but failed to retain the lead as the game progressed and Italy’s 30-year-old Cuban volleyball player Osmany Juantorena Portuondo leveled the score at 8-8.

Iran’s Argentine coach Raul Lozano subsequently introduced three substitutes to reverse the course and reduce the deficit to 20-19. It was the Italian team that powered through and won the set 25-20 at the end.

Lozano fielded Alireza Mobasheri and Hamzeh Zarini at the start of the third set in the face of Italy’s stalwart performance. Both teams were tailing each other point by point. The Italians took up the last remaining opportunities to surge ahead and finish the set 25-21.

Juantorena Portuondo was named the top scorer of the match with 14 points. Shahram Mahmoudi was Iran's top scorer with 13.

“First of all, congratulations to Italy for this victory. We lost the match, anyway. It is true that Italy put us under pressure with their good serves, but this cannot be the reason of our loss. I’m not denying that strong serve does not have any effects on attack, but we cannot say if you cannot receive the ball well, you cannot make a good spike. We should try to have good reactions with difficult receptions. Italy both received and spiked very well tonight and finally won the match,” Lozano said after the match.

Italy’s coach Lorenzo Belgini said, “We are happy for the results. All the sets were very difficult. The third set was complicated, but we stayed cool.”

“We were able to continue our volleyball to the end. I think the same as Lozano about our serves that we served well. But they were good in receptions too. And on the other hand the difference was we were also good on finding solutions.”

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