Marouf: The substitutions sense us in victory

Captain of Serbia, Dragan Stankovic: “First of all, I congratulate the Iranian team. In first and second sets we had advantage in serve, defense and attack, but in the third and fourth sets we stopped and let Iran play. The crowd was also with them, so we could not concentrate. I think both teams played well but Iran were better and won the game. We now seek tomorrow’s match against Argentina.”
Saeid Marouf, Captain of Iran: “Serbia was the only undefeated team in the world league this year. We knew the match would be very difficult. I expected to begin the match very evenly, but Serbia opened the match better and dominated the first two sets and we were not able to perform our plans. But I am happy with the substitutions we made which sense and help our team to get the results and we came back to the game in the third set. We showed the real power of Iran in the third and fourth sets. The fifth set was so close and I think the players’ individual skill helped us in the crucial moments of the game. Anyway, it was a sweet win for us as we stopped Serbia and managed their first loss.”
Nikola Garbic, Head coach of Serbia: “First, congratulations to Iran. They won because they played better and made the right changes. I can divide this match into two parts. Because we played good volleyball in the first two sets, we were serving, receiving and attacking very well. Even when we didn’t serve well we managed to attack well. But in the third and fourth sets we stopped and could not remember what to do. We could not recognize some situations we were talking about for defense, for blocking, we had some opportunity in third set, easy ones that we did not made them. That’s why I am not satisfied. We lost against a good team. We will try to think about the future and tomorrow.”
Raul Lozano, Head coach of Iran: “Before anything I should say tonight was a special one in my life and the fans in the hall created a fantastic atmosphere with their positive participation. I am satisfied with my players who came back to the match after two bad sets and controlled the game. Congratulations to My friend Nikola Garbic in the Serbian team with this fantastic team in the right path and keeping it in shape and I am sorry Serbia did not qualify to the Olympic due to the formula of the qualification. About my team I should say that I am very happy about this win and the qualification they have recently made to Rio.”