Iran captain Mir Saeid Marouflakrani felt that they had a difficult match with Australia because they took the wrong approach towards their opponents
Bydgoszcz, Poland, September 10, 2014 – Iran trounced Australia 3-1 to open their second round campaign with a victory in Pool E of the FIVB Volleyball Men’s World Championship at the Luczniczka Hall on Wednesday.
Iran coach Slobodan Kovac: “This was not our best game, only in the fourth set that we have show a good performance. We came across some problems with the counter-attack. We will now focus on tomorrow’s game against Argentina.”
Iran captain Mir Saeid Marouflakrani: “It was a very dangerous match. We’ve played against Australia in some friendly matches this season. Today, my team-mates took the wrong approach towards our opponents. We felt too sure against Australia and we believed that this game would be over fast. Fortunately, what counts most are the three points we earned today.”
Australia coach Jon Uriarte: “In the first set we lost many opportunities to lead, and very often we were subjected to the successful attack of our Iranian opponents. The fourth set was completely a different story. We were not able to defend the Iranian spikes and stand against their conditions It is a pity we did not make use of the opportunities given to us, but now we can only draw some proper conclusions for the next matches. We are on the World Championships and we cound on every game to win. I won’t change the first six as the championship is not a good time to experiment.”
Australia captain Aidan Zingel: “It was a very tough match although during the first three sets we did our best. In the fourth set, we did too many mistakes. I am disappointed to have lost but we have to keep our heads up because tomorrow there is another game.”