Iran to Play Russia for FIVB World Championship 5th Position
TEHRAN (Tasnim) - Iran lost to France 3-2 (25-20, 25-23, 22-25, 19-25, 15-9) and could not book a place in the FIVB Men’s World Championship semi-final. Slobodan Kovac’s men will play France for the fifth position.
In the match held at the Spodek Arena in Pool G on Thursday night, Iran’s Shahram Mahmoudi had a match-high 22 points in the losing effort while Milad Ebadipour and Pourya Fayazi added 14 and 11, respectively.
Mory Sidibe topped France with 17 points, followed by Nicolas Marechal and Nicolas LeGoff with 11 apiece and Samuele Tuia with 10 tallies.
The victory earned France a ticket to the semifinals for the second time in the history of the quadrennial competition.
While the semi-final matches will take place in Katowice, Iran and Russia are set to play for the fifth position in a contest to be played in Lodz on Saturday.
The final positions at the third round of the competition were as follows:
Pool G: France (5, 2-0), Germany (3, 1-1) and Iran (1, 0-2). Pool H: Poland (4, 2-0), Brazil (4, 1-1) and Russia (1, 0-2).
