Slovenia got off to a very shaky start, but continue to galvanize their fans, as they picked up pace to beat Iran in four sets and now sit alone in third place of the standings behind Brazil and Poland at the end of Week 4 in the 2021 FIVB Men’s Volleyball Nations League which continues at Italy’s Adriatic resort of Rimini.
With three matches for each team remaining in pool play, VNL rookies Slovenia got a boost in their quest for the semifinals after both Serbia and France suffered shock defeats to Argentina and Italy.
Slovenia struggled in dealing with Iran’s serving in a poor first set, but soon recovered to take the lead. Iran weren’t giving up that easily, though. The Asian powerhouse had three set points to force a tie-break and cancelled four Slovenian match points before Tine Urnaut made the kill for the sideout that brought them to their fifth.
Then, Gregor Ropret stepped up to serve and sent the ball, almost like in slow motion, tipping over the top of the net to the utter frustration of Mohammad Mousavi who could do absolutely nothing about it.
Klemen Cebulj was top scorer of the match on 21 points – to counter Iran’s blocking which brought in 12 (five from Mousavi alone).
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