Chicago, USA, July 12, 2019 - Five Brazilian players scored in double digits, including Ricardo Lucarelli (15), Lucas Saatkamp (14), Flavio Gualberto (12), Wallace De Souza (10) and Alan Souza (10) as the reigning Olympic champions claimed a memorable five set 3-2 (25-20, 25-23, 24-26, 20-25, 15-10) victory against Iran to earn the fourth semifinal berth in the 2019 FIVB Volleyball Nations League Finals in Chicago.
Iran and Brazil both lost their opening matches of the Finals in Pool B against a young but conquering Poland team and played on Friday to decide which team would join the European squad in the semifinals on Saturday.
Head-to-Head
- Brazil have a W12-L3 record against Iran in world level major competitions (FIVB Volleyball Nations League, Olympic Games, World Championship, World Cup, World League and Grand Champions Cup).
- Brazil won both matches in the Volleyball Nations League against Iran 3-2, including on 7 June 2019 when Brazil levelled the tie 33-31 in the fourth set and then won 15-10 in the final set.
- Ricardo Lucarelli Souza (20) and Seyed Mohammad Mousavi Eraghi (19) were their team's top scorers in the 3-2 encounter on 7 June.
- Brazil have won the last six matches versus Iran at major world level, since a 3-1 defeat in the 2014 World League.
- All three of Iran's wins over Brazil were victories in the 2014 World League, by all possible scorelines - 3-0, 3-2 and 3-1.
- The winner of this match will join Russia, United States and Poland in this year's semifinals.
Brazil
- Brazil can become the first men's team to have won all major world level competitions at least once, by winning the 2019 Volleyball Nations League.
- Brazil finished fourth in the 2018 VNL, losing the bronze medal match 3-0 to USA.
- Brazil lost 3-2 to Poland in their most recent VNL match, ending an eight-match winning run in the competition.
- Brazil can lose successive world level matches for the first time since losing in the semifinals and in the third-place decider in the 2018 VNL.
- Ricardo Lucarelli Souza (178) and Yoandy Leal Hidalgo (174) are Brazil's top scorers in the 2019 VNL.
- With 151 spikes from 262 attempts (57.63%), Lucarelli Souza is among the best attackers in this year's competition.
- Thales Hoss is among the best receivers in the tournament with an efficiency of 26.52%.
Iran
- Iran could win their first trophy in a major world level competition. They have won seven Asian trophies - Asian Championship (2), Asian Games (2), Asian Cup (3).
- Iran lost their last two Volleyball Nations League matches, 3-0 against United States and 3-1 versus Poland. They could lose three successive VNL matches for the first time.
- Amir Ghafour won 22 points in the 3-1 defeat against Poland, surpassing Japan's Yuji Nishida (219) as this season's top scorer in the VNL on 230 points.
- Ghafour is the only man on 200 points from spikes. His success rate in spikes of 56.50 is also among the bests in the competition this year.
- Only Russia's Ilyas Kurkaev (31) and Canada's Graham Vigrass (30) won more points from stuff blocks than Seyed Mohammad Mousavi Eraghi (28).
- Mir Saeid Marouflakrani is currently the best setter in the competition with an average of 8.04 per set.
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