EGYPT took advantage of an Iran side missing star Amin Esmaeilnezhad, scoring a 25-17, 16-25, 25-23, 25-20 victory to start its Pool A campaign on a hot note in the 2025 FIVB Volleyball Men’s World Championship at the SM Mall of Asia Arena in Pasay City on Sunday.
The win was a much-needed boost for the world No. 23 Egyptians as they claimed the full three points over the higher-ranked Iranians (No. 13), who missed reigning Asian Championship Best Opposite Spiker Esmaeilnezhad due to an ankle injury.
The win also served as a good prelude before they face host team Alas Pilipinas and their legion of supporters on Tuesday, 5:30 p.m. at the same Pasay venue.
“Very great win because after losing the second set with a tough result, we stayed calm… Very great job, I’m so satisfied because this team started to practice at the end of May and today was our first official match so I’m so proud of my team,” said Egypt head coach Marco Bonitta after the two-hour, eight-minute match.
“It will be a very, very difficult match [against the Philippines] because they were a little bit nervous in the first and second sets (against Tunisia) but they played very well starting the third set. I’m sure that the level of the Philippine team is what they will show us from the first set, so it would be a very, very tough match,” he shared, looking ahead to their next game.
After losing the second set lopsidedly, the reigning African champions responded with strong resolve, opening up a 20-14 lead in the third, but the Iranians clawed back and inched within a point 22-23.
Fortunately for Egypt, Iran’s Bardia Saadat committed a costly net fault while Ahmed Said Shafik finished the set with a down-the-line spike over a three-man block to regain control.
“It was a very tough game from the first point to the last point. Since we know that we are playing Iran, we have been managing everything to stop their strongest point and to play on [their] weakest point,” said Abdelrahman Elhossiny, who had 17 points in the win.
Shafik led the Egyptians with 18 points while Seifeldin Hassan Aly added 12.
Iran, which will face 40th-ranked Tunisia on Tuesday as well, was paced by Ali Hajipour and Priya Hossein Khanzadeh with 17 and 12 markers, respectively.
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