Belgini: It is difficult to win 3-0 in Tehran

Italy led by Vettori and Juantorena smoothly beat Iran 3-0 (25-20, 25-20, 25-21) in Tehran on Saturday.

Saeid Marouf, Captain of Iran: “We did not start the match well. We lost the first set because we played so bad. But the reason for our loss in the second and third sets was their good play, we tried hard but could overcome them. We should accept the loss.  Maybe in the future with better situation we can get closer to this Italy. This was our capacity for today. It was obvious that Italy can win with such good play with minor errors.”

Raul Lozano, Head coach of Iran: “First of all, congratulation to Italy for this victory. We lost the match, anyway. It is true that Italy put us under pressure with their good serves, but this cannot be the reason of our loss. I’m not denying that strong serve does not have any effects on attack, but we cannot say if you cannot receive the ball well, you cannot make a good spike. We should try to have good reactions with difficult receptions. Italy both received and spiked very well tonight and finally won the match.”

Emanuele Birarelli, Captain of Italy: “First of all, I want to say it is not easy to win a match here 3-0 in front of the Iranian fans. We deserved the victory. The key to our victory today was our serve. They were in trouble in reception with our jumping serves and their side-outs were not so fast as usual. On the other hand, we received their floating servers very well and when the reception is good, playing volleyball is easy.”

Lorenzo Belgini, Head coach of Italy: “Yes, we are happy for the results. All the sets very difficult. The third set was complicated, but we stayed cool. We were able to continue our volleyball to the end. I think the same as Lozano about our serves that we served well. But they were good in receptions too. And on the other hand the difference was we were also good on finding solutions. We used our brain in hitting the balls different ways in different situation on attack. We stayed focused during the game.”