Great blocking helped the Iranians beat the world no.2 side
Kazan, Russia, 13 June, 2015 – Iran stunned Olympic champions Russia, beating the world no.2 ranked side 3-1 (20-25, 25-16, 25-19, 25-23) in their FIVB World League clash on Saturday.
Some good work from Artem Volvich helped Russia to get ahead early in set one, and with Denis Biryukov and Igor Kolodinskiy also in form, they took the first set with relative ease, 25-20.
But Iran showed far more fight in the second set, and with setter Marouf co-ordinating the side beautifully and Mojtaba Mirzajanpour hitting great winners, won it 25-16. The sides then traded points in set three, with Biriukov and Maxim Mikhaylov countering Milad Ebadipour. But Iran made fewer errors, and took a 2-1 lead (25-19).
And with Mirzajanpour on fire in set four, the Iranians ran up an 8-2 lead. The Russians showed great character, however, getting back to just a point behind, but Iran held on to win the set 25-23, and the match.
Maxim Mikhaylov was the top scorer for the Russia with 17 points, while Mojtaba Mirzajanpour and Milad Ebadipour got 14 each for Iran. Read the match text commentary
here.