Iran coach Reza Vakili Farjad says that their first match against Italy in the 2017 FIVB Volleyball Boys' U19 World Championship is the hardest match.

Iran will start the campaign on Saturday with a match against Italy in Pool D.

The Iranian team have been drawn along with Italy, Czech Republic, Mexico and China.

“We are just concentrating on Italy match since the first match is always the hardest. If we can start good the competition we will keep the team motivated,” Vakili said in the pre-match news conference.

“Italy are a strong team and we have a difficult match ahead but we also have so many talented players and we can start seeing the future players of the sport in this generation,” he added.

The tournament is being hosted by Bahrain in the cities of Riffa and Isa Town from 18 to 27 August 2017.

Host Bahrain were placed in Pool A, with the USA, Puerto Rico, Egypt and Tunisia. Pool B consists of Poland, Brazil, Cuba, Japan and France. Argentina, silver medalists in 2015 have been drawn in Pool C, along with Russia, China, Korea and Turkey. Pool D features Iran, European heavyweights Italy, Mexico, China and the Czech Republic.