The last 3rd week of the Volleyball Nations League has started. Poles faced Iranians during the first match of this round in Ergo Arena in Gdańsk. After a very long game, Iran occurred to be better and the Polish national men’s team did not manage to win. Iran defeated Poland 3:2 in the tie-break.
The Polish men’s team has already played eight matches. Poland is second on a 7-1 win-loss record and 21 points, just below leaders France on set ratio.
The first set started with a point loss for the Poles. However, right away, the Polish men’s volleyball team took a sharp and accurate game, which allowed them to develop a safe lead, which they maintained until the end of the set.
The second set belonged to the Iranians. From the very beginning, they ran a good attack and started to come out on top. The Poles levelled the score at one point, but this did not help. The Poles began to play inaccurately and nervously. The Iranians took very good advantage of the Poles’ errors in the plays. What happened at the end of the set was incredible. Bieniek, in a fantastic style, made up 4 points with practically only serves, leading to a 21:21 tie. Unfortunately, after Bednorz’s unsuccessful serve, the Iranians tied the match 1:1.
The third set started with a bang. The Poles uncompromisingly scored points with strong and effective actions leading to a 12:5 lead. After a technical break, however, the Poles lost their enthusiasm and the Iranians easily made up for the loss which led to a 14:14 tie. The rest of the set belonged to Iran. The Poles tried to make up points, but the Iranians proved to be better and won the third set thus going out to a 2:1 lead.
The fourth set started with a lead for Iran. Despite the efforts of the Poles to level the score, the red and white players had a lot of problems with receiving balls. The Iranians took advantage of all Polish men’s team mistakes. By the technical break, the Poles were losing 9:12. The Poles had a lot of problems with communication between them and could not bring the action to the end. At the end of the set, the Polish coach asked for a timeout to mobilise the Poles. The end was incredibly exciting. Fornal served two service aces leading to a 23:23 tie. The Poles levelled the score in beautiful style and won the fourth set at 27:25!
The fifth set did not promise to go well. The Iranians got out to an early lead. The Poles couldn’t find the motivation and at one point started to lose 2:12. The situation looked tragic. The Poles seemed to have no chance. Eventually, Iran won 3:2.
Poland – Iran 2:3 (25-21, 23-25, 22-25, 27:25, 7-15)