Iran overpowered China in three straight sets in the series of Volleyball Nations League on Friday at Ufa Arena in Ufa, Russia.
It was the 10th playing the 13th in the Volleyball Nations League as China faced Iran, but it was Iran which was in control throughout. Led by its setter and a solid blocking performance, Iran rode out 3-0 winners (25-19, 25-20, and 25-15) with relative ease, FIVB.com wrote.
It was a replay of the 2011 Asian Championship final, when Iran won its first Asian title, and it was again its setter who ran the show. Saeid Marouf is the captain and orchestrator for his team who after the match commented that “there are no easy matches in this competition. Today our service was good and they had a lot of problems with their side-out.”
Fresh from their 5 set win over France last weekend, China seemed to struggle from the off. Coming into the weekend, Chuan Jiang was top scorer in the VNL on 128 points and can now add another 13, but he will be far from satisfied with his days work. Chinas top performer against Iran was 18-year-old Jingyin Zhang who ended the match 14 spikes and 2 blocks and was often his side's go-to guy.
Amir Ghafour of Iran was in third place in the top scorers charts (with 92 points) prior to the match and he showed exactly why he is currently keeping that kind of company with a solid display in attack scoring with 19 points.
