Iran vs Russia today at 11:40 GMT , 16:10 Iran time.
IRAN AND RUSSIA MEET IN FIFTH PLACE PLAYOFF
Head-to-Head
• This will be the first ever World Championship meeting between Iran and Russia.
• These teams recently met in the final round of the 2014 World League, when Russia beat Iran 3-2.
Iran
• Iran are set to better their best ever World Championship result by at least 13 places. They finished in 19th place in 1998 and 2010 and are sure of at least a sixth place finish this year.
• It will also be the best result by an AVC team since Japan finished in fourth place at the 1982 World Championship.
• Iran will end their 2014 World Championship campaign with at least seven wins. That is already more than the five wins they claimed in all of their four previous participations combined.
Russia
• Russia will finish without a medal for the third time in a row, after finishing fifth in 2010 and seventh in 2006.
• It is the first time in team history that Russia finished three consecutive World Championships empty handed (including their participations as Soviet Union). In 1994 and 1998 they finished seventh and fifth respectively, before taking the silver medal in 2002.
• They can equal a team record of four consecutive losses, set previously in 1970.
IRAN’S COACH PLEASED WITH PROGRESS
Lodz Poland, September 19, 2014 – Iran’s coach Solobodan Kovac of Iran feels confident about his team’s chances when they meet Olympic champions Russia in the match for fifth place at the FIVB Men’s World Championship at Atlas Arena in Lodz on Saturday.
The very close match the two sides played at the FIVB World League Finals when Russia prevailed 3-2, has contributed to enhance the hopes of the members of the Asian team who now want to take the extra step.
“We have a chance to win with them,” Kovac said before arriving in Lodz where they will meet Russia. “In the last two matches we didn’t play well and we can all see the result. Russia are a good name but maybe we can wake up and try to do something more.”
Team Iran more and more often play at the same level with the best teams as it is revealed by their fourth places achieved at the World Grand Champions Cup in 2013 and the World League in 2014. Now, they have secured sixth place at the World Championships.
“We are making big progress,” Kovac continued. “We played in the World League Finals, and now we are among the best six. It wasn’t so obvious before the start of the Championship as we were in group with USA, France, Belgium, Italy and Puerto Rico. Not only we did advance to the second round, but also to the third round and I think it’s fantastic. If we believe more in ourselves we have a chance to be better in the future.”
Iran played very good volleyball since the very beginning of the tournament reaching the third round where they were not as efficient as in the previous two phases.
“It is not a catastrophe as last time we finished in 19th place and now are among the best six teams in the world which is fantastic. Only in last two matches we didn’t play well.
“European volleyball is very strong and we knew only something about Russia, Italy and teams like that, but not about France and Germany who are playing very good volleyball,” Kovac concluded.