Iran suffered defeat against Russia in straight sets (26-24, 25-18, 25-20) in the match held at the Hamamatsu Arena on Sunday.
“Congratulations to Russia for their victory today. They played really well. I think they played well especially in the first set, where we lost because of crucial mistakes,” Kovac told fivb.org.
“We must stop committing mistakes but we must not forget that we need to continue to fight. There were moments in the match wherein we played so badly,” he added.
Iran captain Saeid Marouf also criticized the team’s performance against Russia.
“I think we played bad in this match. We started well in the first two sets but we lost our concentration after the second technical timeouts. Now, we need to look forward to our next match,” Marouf said.
