Tehran, Iran, July 4, 2015 - Coaches and players discuss the aftermath of Iran's surprise defeat by Russia in the World League on Saturday.
Slobodan Kovac, Iran coach: "Tonight, my captain represented how one must fight in the court. I
want all my players to be like that. We tried so much to push Russia
down to the second level because we do not know the group for next year.
I prefer to have Australia in front of us rather than Russia in level 1.
"It was so difficult to repeat the result (Friday's 3-0 victory over the same opposition), because yesterday, we had
the possibility to join the final and after the match of Poland with
USA, we knew that was a big delusion. Congratulations to Russia's team.
They took the last chance to stay at level 1."
Mir Saeid Marouflakrani, Iran captain: "The conditions made it natural to expect a tough match. But we started the game with a good mentality. This loss was unbelievable, and I do not know what happened.
"Probably if we had won the first game, the condition would be rather different. Unfortunately, we lost. Russia needed the point more than us. They played with fewer mistakes than yesterday. Congratulations to Russia. We prefer to have Russia in level 1 to learn from them."
Aleksandr Klimkin, Russia coach: "We knew that Iran had no chance to go up after
the win of Poland against USA. I knew that the Iranian players did not have the same
motivation as yesterday as they had no chance to find a way to the
final. That is what I explained to my players and they played easier than
yesterday. We achieved what we had in mind as our objective."
Andrey Ashchev, Russia captain: "I am thankful to our players and our fans that supported us in this win."