Lausanne, Switzerland, September 16, 2017 – Iran are one victory away from their first ever medals in the FIVB Men's World Grand Champions Cup. In their last match of the 2017 edition, the Asian squad will face France and a win would cement them on the podium. Sunday’s game in Osaka will be the first encounter between these two teams in the history of the Grand Champions Cup.
Head-to-Head
• Iran and debutants France will meet for the first time at the World Grand Champions Cup.
• France have won all their previous five competitive matches against Iran at world level.
• In these teams' most recent meeting, on May 31, 2016, France beat Iran in straight sets in an Olympic qualifier.
Iran
• Iran are one of three teams to have won three Grand Champions Cup matches in 2017, together with Brazil and Italy. They are ranked third with seven points, coming into the final match day, trailing Brazil and Italy with nine points each.
• They have never reached the podium in the tournament, finishing fifth in 2009 and fourth in 2013.
• Iran could win four Grand Champions Cup matches in a single edition for the first time.
• Iran have lost the first set in each of their last three Grand Champions Cup matches, turning it around in two of those fixtures.
• Amir Ghafour scored a match-high 23 points in the 3-1 win over Japan on Saturday.
France
• France have lost three of their four Grand Champions Cup matches, with the exception of the 3-0 win over Japan in their second match.
• The last debutants that lost at least four of their five matches at the Grand Champions Cup were their next opponents Iran in 2009 (4).
• The last time France lost three consecutive matches at a world-level tournament was in the 2013 World League, where they lost their first four of the tournament.
• Jean Patry (21) was one of the two players to score 20+ points in the match with Italy, together with the top scorer in the competition Luca Vettori (24).