Iranian volleyballers defeat South Korea 3-1 in 2018 FIVB Volleyball Nations League
The national Iranian men’s volleyball team has upset South Korea to achieve its first victory at the fifth week of the 2018 Fédération Internationale de Volleyball (FIVB) Volleyball Men's Nations League.
On Friday evening, the Iranian squad defeated the South Koran side 3-1 (27-25, 23-25, 25-22 and 25-23) at the end of a Pool 19 match played at the Azadi Indoor Stadium in western Tehran.
It was just a high-octane affair with both sides playing aggressively with little at stake. Iran's firepower and skill, though, proved too much for South Korea.
The hosts fought relentlessly throughout and showcased a slew of astounding defensive efforts. They got the first set 27-25.
South Korea started the second quickly scoring five of the first seven points. However, Iran's firepower started to take hold and prove too much for their agile opponents.
With constant pressure, South Koreans dominated Iran's serves and impressively counterattacked to claim the tight second set 25-23, and level proceedings.
Iran started the third set, in contrast to the previous ones, and Milad Ebadipour landed a couple of brutal blows to ensure the hosts claimed the crucial period by 25 points to 22.
Iranian volleyball players were made to work for their victory, and finally closed the fourth set 25-23.
The national Iranian men’s volleyball team, which does not have any chance to advance to the next round of the tournament and is only playing for pride, will face Bulgaria on Saturday evening.
The 2018 FIVB Volleyball Men's Nations League kicked off on May 25, and will run through July 8 in 22 host cities.
A total of 16 teams compete in a round-robin format with every core team hosting a pool at least once.
The teams are divided into four pools of four teams at each week and compete five weeks long, with a total of 120 matches.
The top five teams after the preliminary round join the host of the final round to compete in the last stage.
The relegation takes in consideration only the 4 challenger teams.
The last-ranked challenger team plays the promotion play-off against the Challenger Cup winners. The winners of the play-off will qualify for the next edition as a challenger team.
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