Brazil retain VNL leadership - but only just

Feisty Slovenia took mighty Olympic champions and leaders of the 2021 FIVB Men's Volleyball Nations League Brazil all the way Tuesday evening as the competition entered Week 4 of pool play at Italy's Adriatic resort of Rimini.

It took Brazil a double comeback from a set down twice to force a tie-break. But when the South Americans found themselves trailing 11-12 in the fifth, their experience and class came to the surface and they completed a 4-0 run after a service error by Alen Sket, an ace by Ricardo Lucarelli on Tine Urnaut, a block by Isac Santos on Klemen Cebulj and a hit on the net by Jan Kozamernik to bring the match home.

The win keeps Brazil firmly in first place of the standings on a 9-1 record (their only defeat from France earlier in the competition).

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Wallace de Souza with 18 points was top scorer of the match, with an attacking efficiency of 65% (17/26), and Yoandy Leal added another 17, to counter the 16 points by Klemen Cebulj.

Poland are now alone in second place and in pursuit of Brazil, after a very convincing win over Canada in straight sets - though it was hardly a walk in the park for the reigning world champions as the North Americans made them work hard for their win.

Bartosz Kurek was back in action for Poland and contributed his team's joint high of 15 points, alongside Wilfredo Leon (3 aces). The match high of 16, however, came from Canada's Sharone Vernon.

France, though, have now fallen behind and stand at 7-3 together with Slovenia and Serbia, after an epic late night clash with the Netherlands.

France blew a match point to finish the match in three sets, as the Dutch launched a comeback to grab their only second win in the tournament.

Nimir Abdel-Aziz hauled in 42 points, shattering the previous VNL scoring record of 37 held by China's Jiang Chuan from 2018. France's Theo Faure scored 30 for a double '30+' in the same game.

Defending champions Russia were in top form again and Maxim Mikhaylov scored 23 points as he led his side to a four-set win over Serbia - though only after coming back from a seven-point deficit 10-17 to claim the critical first set.

Russia's efficient blocking that brought in 15 points (four by Ilyas Kurkaev) was key to their win, as was their pressure from the service line.

Mikhaylov, however, still trails Nimir in the race for top scorer of the competition.

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Unstoppable Yuki Ishikawa attacked for an incredible 74% (17/23) and added three aces to score a match high of 20 points and keep Japan right alongside Russia in the standings after their very convincing win over Germany in three sets.

Australia, meanwhile, got their first win at this year's VNL with a tie-break win over Iran who had come back from two sets down to force a fifth.

This leaves no team undefeated at the 2021 VNL.

Iran came from behind in the tie-break to enter the business end of the set with an 11-9 advantage, but Australia were fresher and completed a 6-1 run at the end to claim their historic victory.

There were plenty of unforced errors all around (34 conceded by Iran, 35 by Australia), but Trent O'Dea emerged top scorer of the game on 17 points for Australia, with Bardia Saadat getting 16 for Iran.

In other VNL action on Tuesday, Argentina produced most efficient attacking (58% by Bruno Lima, 57% by Facundo Conte, 100% by Augustin Loser) as they took down Bulgaria in four sets.

And for USA Matt Anderson attacked for 62% (13/21) and Taylor Sander for 63% (12/19) as the 2019 silver medallists outplayed Italy in straight sets and just under an hour and a half.

Check out the full results and details of all matches, plus remaining schedule