Russian coach Vladimir Alekno celebrates with player Dimitry Volkov at the end of the match against Iran
Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, August 15, 2016 – Russian coach Vladimir Alekno knows the upcoming matches are crucial and teams need to play at their highest level if they want to survive in the battle for the Olympic medals.
Vladimir Alekno, Coach of Russia: It was very important to win. In this situation it is better to play with more superiority, to play better than your opponent. I think each one in the team did their job.
Raul Lozano, Coach of Iran: It is very important for Iran to move into the second round since it is their first time in the Olympics. In the first set we played better than in the next two when Russia made fewer mistakes than us and played better than us.
On the quarterfinals against Italy:
It is very clear that Italy is the favourite. If they play under their level and we play above ours, we can surprise them. We will go out to give a good try and who knows what can happen. Maybe Italy faces some problems with the pressure and we take advantage of that.
Sergei Tetyukhin, Captain of Russia: Iran has improved as volleyball team. In the first set we didn’t play up to our level and they took advantage of it. I am glad we won in three sets. In the next round I don´t have a preferred opponent. Our fate will depend on us.
Shahram Mahmoudi, Player of Iran: We didn’t play the way we can. I don’t know the reason. I hope we can do that against Italy in our next match and advance to the third round.