Pesaro, Italy, June 4, 2017 –
Amir Ghafour was the leading scorer for Iran in upsetting the reigning world champions in a 2017 FIVB Volleyball World League match in Italy. In their third match of this campaign, the Asian squad finally achieved their first victory – 3-1 (25-18, 23-25, 23-25, 22-25) against Poland.
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This was Iran’s fourth World League victory over Poland in the total of nine encounters the two sides have had in the history of the competition.
Poland imposed the pace in the first set and thanks to a great spike from
Michal Kubiak got to the second technical time-out with a 16-10 lead. Iran made various mistakes in serving and Poland easily won the first set with 82% good reception, 57% success rate in attack and a final score of 25-18.
In the second set Iran shifted gears and started very well taking the lead. But in the blink of an eye Poland tied it up and with an incredible Kubiak managed to regain control for 16-15. It was a thrilling point-for-point battle with Iran chasing every ball relentlessly, eventually managing to win by 25-23.
The third set started very tight with massive spikes from both teams. Coach Igor Kolakovic’s team was reinvigorated and soon took the lead thanks to their powerful serving and blocking. The quality of the match was immense and Iran was showing their best volleyball against the Poles.
Milad Ebadipour delivered a triple set point to Iran but it was Ghafour that signed off with the last point of the set – 25-23. Set 4 started with the incredible strength of Iran cruising to a 16-11 lead at the second technical time-out. In the end Iran made their dream come true - 25-23 and a victory over the world champs.