TEHRAN – Iran eased past China in straight sets (25-14, 25-22, 25-14) on Sunday at the AVC Men’s Tokyo Volleyball Qualification tournament to book a place at the 2020 Olympic Games as the best Asian team.

Iran’s Mohammad Mousavi scored a match-high 16 points and Chuan Jiang scored 13 points for China.

It was a rematch between two Asian giants since Iran had defeated China 3-0 in Pool A on Thursday.

“First of all, I’d like to say we are so happy because we are going to the Olympic Games. We’ve trained and played under great pressure for a long time because everybody in Iran expected us to qualify,” Kolakovic said in the post-match news conference.

“I didn’t say too much about our problems such as the injured players but in the end I am so happy because I sit on the bench of this team. They played very well to show that we deserve to play at the Olympics on behalf of Asian volleyball,” he added.

In addition to hosts Japan, the teams of Iran, Argentina, Brazil, Italy, Poland, France, the U.S. and Tunisia have qualified so far for Tokyo 2020 through the intercontinental qualification tournaments.

Iran qualified for the Olympics for the second time in a row, as the Persians came fifth in the previous edition held in Rio.