Nigeria’s U19 volleyball team were humbled by European bronze medallists, Poland in their second group game at the ongoing 2021 FIVB U19 Boys Volleyball World Championship in Iran.

The Poles cruised through the match to win in straight sets (25-10, 25-14, 25-18).

Reacting to his team’s second straight loss, coach of the Nigerian team Sani Mohammed admitted his wards were cowed by the occasion and were undone by their bad start in the first set of the match.

“The boys gave their best but their best was not enough against Poland,” Mohammed said. “In the first set, my players gave too much respect to Poland and it cost us that scorelines.”

“If you watched the second and third set, you will see that we gave our opponent a good fight but the game went their way.

“I and my assistant (Adekalu Adeniyi) will work on the psychology of the players; every team at the World Championship is beatable and no one is indispensable here.”

Nigeria next play Iran and an upbeat Mohammed is confident his players will not be intimidated by the prospect of facing the hosts.