Poland and Cuba complete semifinal line-up at U21 World Championship

Brno / Ceske Budejovice, Czech Republic, June 29, 2017 – In a very dramatic last match in Pool E, Poland snatched a 3-2 victory over hard-fighting Iran not only to claim the top spot in the pool standings, but also to eliminate Iran and let Cuba into the semifinals of the FIVB Volleyball Men’s U21 World Championship.

"That was not a match, it was a war," exclaimed Iran's coach Behrouz Ataei after the match. After on Wednesday Russia and Brazil qualified for the semis from Pool F, on Friday Poland and Cuba completed the line-up of the best four teams in the competition.

Saturday’s classification playoff fixtures:

Russia v Cuba

Poland v Brazil

Iran v Argentina

Canada v China

Turkey v Egypt

Italy v Ukraine

USA v Morocco

Japan v Czech Republic

Cuba started the day with a four-set victory over China. This result already ensured Poland’s place in the semifinals, but the Cubans had to wait for the result of the clash between Poland and Iran. While the Iranians needed a win to surpass Cuba in the standings, the Poles wanted the first place and the victory. And they got it after five sets of exciting top-level volleyball.

Miguel David Gutierrez was once again the driving force in Cuba’s success. In their last match of the second stage of the tournament, the Cubans claimed a hard-fought 3-1 (25-21, 25-23, 24-26, 27-25) victory over China to keep alive their chances for making the semifinals. Gutierrez hammered out 24 points to become the best scorer of the match.

In an incredible nail-biting battle between two very strong teams, Poland managed to stay unbeaten at the U21 World Championship and qualify for the semifinals as the winner in Pool E. Tomasz Fornal was the main driving force behind his team’s 3-2 (27-29, 25-21, 20-25, 25-20, 15-11) victory over Iran in the last match of the pool. He was the best scorer for his team with 20 points.

 

Despite having already qualified for the semis, Russia and Brazil put on a fierce five-set battle for the first place in the pool. So did Canada and Argentina earlier in the clash for the third place in the pool standings. It was Russia and Canada that emerged with the tie-breaker wins.

A tremendous effort by middle blocker Alexei Kononov helped Russia pull off a tight 3-2 (25-20, 21-25, 30-28, 19-25, 17-15) win against Brazil and top the final standings in Pool F on the way to a semifinal encounter with Cuba. Kononov piled up seven kill blocks for a total of 23 points in the match.

Canada’s solid blocking throughout the match, led by opposite Tariq Sani, was the main reason the North American team managed to come back from a two-set deficit against Argentina, stamp a 3-2 (23-25, 21-25, 25-22, 25-22, 15-11) victory and finish third in Pool F. Sani became the best scorer of the game with 25 points, including five kill blocks.

 

Egypt will follow pool winners Italy into the ninth place semifinals from Pool G, after defeating the other contender, USA, in Thursday’s direct duel for the runner-up position. The Americans will join bottom-placed Czech Republic into the matches for the 13th place.

Omar Aly showed a great performance again and helped Egypt achieve an important 3-1 (25-22, 23-25, 25-18, 25-19) victory over USA, which secured his team the second place in the pool. Aly scored 21 times in this match, despite the Americans’ great blocking efforts.

Although Italy and Czechia already knew which classification tiers they would be placed into, they set themselves up for a five-set battle, in which the southern Europeans, led by their best scorer in the game Roberto Cominetti (18 points), persevered for a 3-2 (23-25, 25-14, 23-25, 25-18, 18-16) victory.

 

Turkey and Ukraine took the top two spots in Pool H to continue the quest towards the ninth place over the upcoming weekend. On Thursday, the Ukrainians shut out Morocco and advanced, after which the Turks lost to Japan, but managed to hold on to the first place on point ratio.

With 17 points by Volodymyr Ostapenko, Ukraine handed Morocco a speedy 3-0 (25-21, 25-22, 25-23) shutout.

Japan needed a straight-set victory over Turkey to take their spot among the top two away from them. However, the Turks won the third set and cemented themselves in the ninth place semis. Japan’s Yudai Arai made 19 points on the way to the 3-1 (25-21, 25-22, 23-25, 25-20) victory to top the scorers’ chart of the match.