Poland take on Iran after two wins against Russia last weekend
Czestochowa, Poland, June 4, 2015 - Poland take on Iran in leg 2 of their FIVB Volleyball World League 2015 Group 1 Intercontinental Round campaign on Friday and Saturday. The world champions will be hoping to build on a strong start to the competition after defeating Olympic champions Russia twice last week.
The excitement of the fantastic Poland-Russia clashes in Gdansk is still fresh. In the first match at the Ergo Arena last week, Antiga’s men stormed to a three sets victory. The second match, however, went to a thrilling point-for-point tiebreaker - but the world champions held on to claim a second victory against the Olympic champions.
The top position in Pool B is currently occupied by reigning World League champions USA, who scored a double 3-1 victory over Iran last weekend. The American heroes will now take on Russia, while Poland welcome Iran to Czestochowa.
The history of Polish-Iranian rivalry in the World League is a short one as it began only last year. Poland visited Tehran twice in the Intercontinental Round of the 2014 edition of the competition, losing both matches, before defeating the Iranians in Gdansk twice. It was the Iranians, however, who qualified for the Group 1 Finals in Florence to take fourth place in the final standings.
The fifth match between the two teams took place in the second phase of the FIVB Volleyball Men’s World Championship Poland 2014. That was a particularly difficult game for the future world champions, who were two sets up but had to battle to 16-14 in the fifth before claiming victory. Poland are warned and there is no doubt that the Iranian team will do all it can to remind the volleyball world that it belongs among the very best.
Poland coach Stephane Antiga has informally confirmed which fourteen players will line up against Iran. There are no changes to the squad which proved itself against Russia.
Poland1.Piotr Nowakowski
4. Jakub Jarosz
6. Bartosz Kurek
8. Andrzej Wrona
11. Fabian Drzyzga
12. Grzegorz Łomacz
13. Michał Kubiak (C)
14. Piotr Gacek (L)
17. Paweł Zatorski (L)
18. Marcin Możdżonek
20. Mateusz Mika
21. Rafał Buszek
22. Bartosz Bednorz
23. Mateusz Bieniek
Head coach: Stephane Antiga
Assistant coach: Philippe Blain