News / Sports

Iran volleyball team drubs Kazakhstan in Asian U23 championship, moves into semi-finals

Monday, 08 May 2017 9:12 AM [ Last Update: Monday, 08 May 2017 9:13 AM ]

This photo shows a view of the 2017 Asian Men's U23 Volleyball Championship quarterfinal match between Iran, players clad in white, and Kazakhstan at Hossein Rezazadeh Indoor Stadium in the northwestern Iranian city of Ardabil on May 7, 2017.

The national Iranian volleyball team has outclassed the Kazakh outfit in straight sets to secure a place among the top four teams of the 2017 Asian Men's U23 Volleyball Championship currently being staged in the northwestern Iranian city of Ardabil.

On Sunday evening, the Iranian squad delivered a consistent play from the outset to the end of the quarterfinal match played at the 6,000-seater Hossein Rezazadeh Indoor Stadium, and won the game (25–9, 25–17 and 25–14) to send the Central Asians packing.

“Kazakhstan are a strong team with good attacks and blocks as you have seen them before. The key element for our win in this match is service and attack. Against Thailand in the semi-finals, I think you all want to hear from me that it is easy but actually no match is easy in this tournament especially when Thailand made their way up into the quarter-finals and have shown their capability up to now. We will do our best to qualify for the World Championship in Egypt,” Iran’s head coach Juan Cichello said after the match.

This photo shows a view of the 2017 Asian Men's U23 Volleyball Championship quarterfinal match between Iran, players clad in white, and Kazakhstan at Hossein Rezazadeh Indoor Stadium in the northwestern Iranian city of Ardabil on May 7, 2017.

“First of all, I extend my felicitations on the Iranian team. It was a good team. Iran were like a tank that simply rolled over us. We could not do much against Iran as the team delivered a great performance in presence of home crowds. We did our utmost, but Iran’s power left us with nothing to offer,” Kazakhstan’s head coach Andrei Patrakov commented.

The 2017 Asian Men's U23 Volleyball Championship kicked off in Ardabil, Iran, on May 1 and will run through May 9, 2017.

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