Russia's Sergey Savin (10) celebrates another point against Iran on Saturday evening
Tehran, Iran, July 4, 2015 – What a difference a day makes. On Friday Iran beat Russia in straight sets in the World League, but 24 hours later it was the Russians who were celebrating after an impressive 3-1 (25-23, 19-25, 25-18, 25-21) win.
The result signalled a first defeat for Iran in four encounters with Russia this season and left the home crowd in disbelief at a visiting side who had lost all of their previous World League matches in 2015, but were inspired by the scoring of Dmitriy Muserskiy (22 points) and Sergey Savin (13).
The shocks started early, with Russia taking a tight first set 25-23, before Iran fought back to level the match.
But the visitors were not to be denied, and after taking the third by a comfortable seven points, Russia maintained control in set four to bring up a victory that, although it does not lift them from the bottom of the Pool B table, does provide a welcome boost to morale.