TEHRAN – Iran started the 2022 Volleyball Nations League (VNL) in a shaky way but the Persians, at the moment, have a chance to book their place in the competition’s quarterfinals.

Iran sit eighth in the table and the top seven teams as well as hosts Italy will qualify for the quarterfinals.

Iran have earned four wins in the previous two weeks and suffered four losses.

Behrouz Ataei’s men have defeated China, Australia, the U.S. and Canada so far and lost to the Netherlands, Japan, Bulgaria and Brazil.

Iran will start the Week 3 with a match against Poland Tuesday night.

The National Team are scheduled to meet Italy on Thursday and face Slovenia and Serbia in the following day.

Iran bagged disappointing results against Japan, the Netherlands and Bulgaria but defeated powerhouses the U.S. and showed a glittering performance against defending champions Brazil.

Young players namely, Amin Esmaeilnezhad, Amirhossein Esfandiar, Mahdi Jelveh, Amirreza Sarlak, Amirhossein Toukhteh, and Morteza Sharifi have already shown that they are ready to fill vacancy of stars Saeid Marouf, Mohammad Mousavi, Amir Ghafour, Shahram Mahmoudi, and Farhad Ghaemi and. 

Booking a place in the competition’s quarterfinals will be a big boost for the reinforced team.

Iran need at least two wins out of four to seal a berth in the final eight.