Clashes take gloss off Poland's 3-2 win over Iran in men's volleyball

Poland defeated Iran 3-2 in a men's volleyball pool B match at the Rio de Janeiro Olympics on Tuesday but the game was marred by a post-match confrontation among the players.

Bartosz Kurek had a tournament-high 23 points to lead the Polish victory, followed by Michal Kubiak with 18 and Mateusz Bieniek and Karol Klos with 12 apiece.

Poland took the first two sets with 25-17 and 25-23, but Iran staged a big comeback from two sets down to force Poland into a fifth set. In the tie-breaker both teams traded leads.

Poland finally won 18-16 with spike by Klos and opponent error. With the victory, Poland improved their win-loss record to 2-0 in Pool B, while Iran fell to 0-2.

The conflict continued after the match as players stood either side of the net and confronted each other, with pushing and shoving breaking out.

Iran's wing spiker Shahram Mahmoudi said the Polish players was not polite after the match. "When the game is over, the Polish team use words to us that are not nice," he said.

"We have a player who is from Poland. He told me some bad words from Polish, and I listen to what they are saying and I become angry. What they said is really bad, I cannot say," added Mahnoudi.

Players had to be pulled away from each other by coaches and staff and there were further exchanges in the post-match press conference.

Poland captain Michal Kubiak said it is "just emotion".

"We like them, it's just emotion that we have after the game. They laugh inside the court at our face - I don't care. For me it's just a part of the sport. We stare at them, they stare at us, they smile at us, we smile at them, it's just a sport," said Kubiak.

"We came here to win the Olympics. It's not that we are here for just being at the Olympics. We came here to take over, not to take part," said Kubiak, who score 18 points including four blocks. Endit