Iran lost to Russia 3-1 (25-23, 19-25, 25-18, 25-21) in Tehran’s Azadi Hall in its last match in Pool B of the FIVB World League.
"It was so difficult to repeat the result (Friday's 3-0 victory over the same opposition), because we had the possibility to join the final and after the match of Poland with USA, we knew that was a big delusion," Kovac said in the post-match news conference.
"Congratulations to Russia's team. They took the last chance to stay at level 1."
"In our second match against Russia, my captain represented how one must fight in the court. I want all my players to be like that. We tried so much to push Russia down to the second level because we do not know the group for next year."
"I prefer to have Australia in front of us rather than Russia in level 1,” he added.