Down to business at Boys' U19 Worlds as knockout stage set

It was a busy day, Saturday, in Tehran at the ongoing 2021 FIVB Boys' U19 World Championship with the top scoring of the tournament so far, the first tie-break of the competition and a historic win for Colombia marking the conclusion of pool play and the confirmation of Round of 16 match-ups.

Poland, defending champions Italy, 2017 (and 2015) runners-up Russia and 2017 bronze medallists Argentina are all undefeated and secured pole position heading into the knockout stage which gives them the advantage of theoretically weaker opponents in the Round of 16 on Monday.

Round of 16 matchups:

● Bulgaria v Egypt

● Italy v Nigeria

● Russia v Cuba

● Brazil v India

● Argentina v Thailand

● Poland v Colombia

● Germany v Belgium

● Iran v Czech Republic

Teams get to rest on Sunday, but are back in full action on Monday in the do-or-die knockout stage of the competition.

In the absence of the Dominican Republic and Guatemala who withdrew ahead of the competition, Belarus and Cameroon will play a one-off match to decide 17th place in the final standings.

The Dominican Republic and Guatemala rank joint 19th.

● Check out the final pool standings upon completion of the first phase.

● Visit the Match Centres for results, schedule, full statistics and pictures of all the games.

Hosts Iran rebounded from their defeat of the previous night to Poland with a solid 3-0 (25-19, 25-13, 25-19) sweep of Nigeria to finish second in their pool.

Poriya Khanzadeh was top scorer of the game on 18 points as Iran overall proved highly more efficient in attacking.

Colombia, meanwhile, scored a famous win - their first in the history of the Boys' U19 World Championship - a 3-1 (25-18, 25-23, 19-25, 29-27) affair over Belarus that sees the South Americans through to the knockout stage of the competition.

There was a bit of drama in the third set as Colombia came from behind to thwart Belarus' attempt to take the game into a tie-/Colombia still had to fend off two set points of the European side, but eventually clinched the momentous victory of a net touch error Yauheni Sych while trying to block Miguel Angel Martinez.

With 27 points on Saturday, Martinez was by far the top scorer of the game and now trails only Belgium's Ferre Reggers in the overall best scorers list of the tournament in Tehran.

Belgium just pulled through to take down Thailand 3-1 (25-21, 26-28, 25-19, 26-24) and confirm third place in Pool C, thus avoiding a matchup against Argentina in the Round of 16 and instead get to face Germany.

Belgium could have gone two sets up, but failed to convert three set points, before Kittipong Sangsak delivered the last attack to bring Thailand level.

Thailand came close to forcing a tie-break, but only managed to cancel one match point of Belgium before Benjamin Jaidee hit long in the last attack of the match.

Reggers, who attacked for 62% (28/45) and added three blocks and an ace for a tally of 32 became the first player in the tournament to break the 30-point mark in a single game. The previous tournament high had been 29 points by Bulgaria's Aleksandar Nikolov in his side's four-set defeat to Russia.

Reggers now leads the best scorers of the tournament on a total of 84 points (68 attacks, 9 blocks and 7 aces), ahead of Martinez (76) and Bulgaria's Aleksandar Nikolov (75).

In another deciding match to confirm positioning ahead of the knockout stage, Brazil edged the Czech Republic 3-2 (25-21, 21-25, 19-25, 25-17, 15-9).

It was the first tie-break of the tournament.

The South Americans, who hold a record six Boys' U19 world titles, had ten set points to take the fourth and force the tie-break, but wasted four of them before Samuel de Morais came up with the goods with an attack that brought the set home.

The Czech Republic's Jan Jirasek with 23 points and David Kollator with 21 were the top scorers of the game, but after conceding 38 unforced errors were hard-pressed to come up with a win.

Brazil produced more balanced distribution of play, with Arthur Buczmiejuk emerging their best scorer on 15.

But this was not the only five-setter of the day. Egypt twice came from behind to edge Cuba 3-2 (24-26, 27-25, 21-25, 25-23, 15-9) and clinch third place in Pool D thus avoiding Russia in the knockout phase.

Cuba were first to reach set point at 24-22 in the first, but it took them a total of three to take the early overall lead.

The Caribbean side missed their chance at going two sets up when they came from behind, overturning a seven-point deficit at 11-18 to again reach set point with two to spare. This time, Egypt cancelled both these and a third before going ahead themselves and drawing level on a kill by Hazem 'Rashad' Abdalla.

And it was only for a few hours that the scoring record of Reggers held, as Alejandro Gonzalez smashed 38 points for Cuba setting a new tournament high. The 18-year-old scored off 37 attacks (from 62 swings for 59%) and added one block.

Best scorer of Egypt was Zyad 'Osama' Mohamed on 20 points, as the African side pressed from the service line but also took advantage of Cuba's massive 45 unforced errors.

Elsewhere on Saturday, Bulgaria wrapped up Pool C with a sweep of Cameroon 3-0 (25-19, 25-18, 25-19) in just over an hour - Georgi Tatarov scoring the match high of 15 points for the Balkan side who were dominant throughout.

All teams will rest on Sunday, ahead of the knockout stage of the competition which begins on Monday 30 August with the Round of 16.

All matches are televised live on the Volleyball World YouTube Channel, where they're also available to watch on demand.

Quick links:
FIVB Volleyball Boys' U19 World Championship 2021
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