Serbia
The 3-0 defeat left Iran with no chance of qualifying for the final four, while Serbia will play against Russia in the final round of pool matches to decide who advances as group winner.
The opening set was even up to the technical timeout and then Serbia turned a 12-9 advantage into a 21-13 set win. Setter Nikola Jovović spread the attacks around his spikers as Srećko Lisinac, Uroš Kovačević and captain Aleksandar Atanasijević all contributed points.
The second set followed a similar pattern with Serbia converting a small lead in the middle of the set to a comfortable set win. Serbia’s attacking points dropped, but their serving points went up with Jovović, Lisinac and Atanasijević all keeping the pressure on Iran with their serves.
Iran reduced their error count and were able to put more pressure on Serbia in the third set with their attacks. They held a small advantage throughout almost the whole set, but Serbia were able to take control in the closing points to win 21-19.
Opposite Atanasijević finished as Serbia’s top scorer with 13 points, while receiver Filip Stoilović came more to prominence in the second and third sets and contributed 12.
Mojtaba Mirzajanpour and Milad Ebadipour Ghara were Iran’s top scorers, but their total of six points each showed the low impact they were able to make on Serbia’s defence.
After Thursday’s rest day, it’s the final round of pool matches pool B’s undefeated teams Serbia and Russia meet, while Iran play Venezuela.’
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