Hoffman Estates, USA, June 16, 2018 – Serbia added to their collection of five-set wins their 3-2 victory against Iran on Saturday at the FIVB Volleyball Nations League.
Serbia coach Nikola Grbic: “It wasn’t easy to come back and play less than 24 hours after the loss we had. We managed to come back after losing the first set by changing a lot of players. We managed to turn around the game and win. It would have been better if we had won in three. Then again, the victory is always good. I am satisfied with the players who came in and changed the game and gave us positive energy. We will try to forget what happened now and focus on tomorrow’s game again.”
Serbian player Marko Podrascanin: “This is a very important victory for us, especially because yesterday we lost 3-0 to the United States. We are still on the run for the Final Six. This is really important for us, for our heads, because we lost the last two games 3-0 against France and the United States. We need to stay focused especially tomorrow we are playing a really important game against Poland.”
Iran coach Igor Kolakovic: “It was tough. We played as hard as the match before but tonight Serbia won. I’m happy because they really have an opportunity to play in the final, but also I’m sad because we had an opportunity to win in this condition. We had a lot of problems with our players with injuries. During the game, one of our important young players – Morteza Sharifi – got injured. For that reason I am sadder with this defeat, but life goes on and tomorrow we have a new game. We will try to keep this energy for the next game.”