Asian Boys’ U-19 Volleyball Championship: Iran Routs Bangladesh

The Iranian team ended its first-round Pool B campaign in second place at the Wunna Theikdi Indoor Stadium Hall B.

Defending and seven-time champion Iran suffered its first loss at the hands of Korea in its first match on Wednesday, but still made use of the similar line-up including powerful Morteza Sharifi and the 205cm-tall Mahdi Jelveh Ghaziani in its encounter against unfancied Bangladesh.

Sharifi scored a team-high 19 points including 15 kills and 4 ace serves, while Mohammad Islam led Bangladesh with 6 points including 5 kills, while Hossan SK Ismile added with 6 points from ace spikes.

After the match, Iran head coach Mohammad Vakili said, “It’s our first win in this tournament. This match is very important for us. If we lose, we will crash out from the top eight and will instead play in the 9th-11th classification. My target is just to beat Bangladesh because we could not lose again since we had already lost to South Korea."

"A loss to China in the playoffs is not important because we can come back to play again in the round and keep our title defence dream alive, but here if we lose to Bangladesh, we will lose our title.”