The second day in Pool A brought a historical success of Iran, that has beaten Japan 3-1, and expected victory of Italy over Egypt in three sets.
Iran – Japan
The first set did not indicate that this game would be a close competition. Japan immediately took the lead and was able to maintain it till the last ball. They quickly close this part of the game with the result 25:15. The second set was full of errors of Japan, Iran took advantage and won this set 25:17. Two last sets showed us a real fight. Eventually it was Iran that gained the last point and won over Japan 3-1. The game was close in respect to errors: Iran – 21, Japan – 22, top scorers among the Iranians were Kazem and Eraghi, while in Japan the most efficient was Shimizu. It was the second loss of Japan in this tournament.
Iran – Japan 3-1 (15:25, 25:17, 26:24, 25:23)
Iran: Marouflakrani 6, Mousavi Eraghi 14, Zarini 2, Nadi 15, Keshavarzi 8, Mohammad Kazem 17, Alizadeh (L) and Gholami, Andalib, Mahdavi, Kamalvand.
Japan: Abe 1, Matsumoto 7, Yamamura 8, Shimizu 23, Fukuzawa 11, Ishijima 16, Sakai (L) and Tomimatsu, Koshikawa, Imamura.
Italy – Egypt
It seemed a formality for Italy to win this match. Great expectations of the Italian fans was almost ‘touchable’ in the crowded sports hall in Milan. ‘Azzurri’ started and finished the first set with block. The first made by Mastrangelo, the last – Savani. The second and the third set is a performance of Fei in attack and unbeaten Mastrangelo in block. Additionally, in the beginning of the third part of the game Egyptian El Shikh got injured. Italy took the lead, but Egypt did not give up. At the end of this set they started to chase the hosts, but finally Italy did not lose their advantage and won 25:23 and the whole match 3-1. The Egyptians made more errors (27), while the Italians only 16. The best scorer in Italy was Parodi, in Egypt – Atia. That was the second victory of ‘Azzurri’ what means that almost for sure they will play in the second round of the World Championship tournament.
Italy: Mastrangelo 11, Parodi 13, Vermiglio 1, Savani 9, Fei 12, Birarelli 2, Marra (L) and Lasko, Travica.
Egypt: Youssef 8, Ahmed 4, Abdelhay 6, Atia 10, Badawy 10, Ahmed Abdel 2, Alaydy (L) and El Kotb 3, Afifi, El Shikh 3.
