Jiangmen, China, January 11, 2020 - Iran beat Korea 3-2 (22-25, 25-21, 25-18, 22-25, 15-13) in the semifinal of the AVC Men's Tokyo Volleyball Qualification on Saturday. Ali Shafiei tallied 17 points including 11 blocks and three aces. Park Jeongah scored the match-high 25 points for Korea.
Korea head coach Im Dohun: “We did our utmost for the match and I want to say thank you to my players.”
Korea captain Shin Yung-suk: “I don’t feel regret as I have done my best.”
Iran head coach Igor Kolakovic: “It was a very special game for us as team Korea put us under pressure from the beginning of game. They had good serves and position in defence. We didn’t find a way to make some good serves. But after the first set, we started to play much better, fighting for each point until the end. And I am very happy to qualify for the final. I don’t care about who our opponents will be, tomorrow there will be new opportunities for us to win an important game.”
Iran captain Saeid Marouf: “First of all, I’d like to say congratulations to team Korea, because today they did an amazing job and put us under a lot of pressure. We had some mistakes but in the tie-breaker, we didn’t lose our focus and won this game. Now I want to say we are happy to go to the final. We don’t know which other team will qualify yet, but it will be much harder so we need to recover and forget this game. We have to play more than 100 per cent tomorrow. Today it was a good experience for us anyway.”