France topped Iran's first loss, USA crushed the Puerto Ricans in straight sets and Italy defeated Belgium in four sets in Pool D of the Men's Volleyball World Championship in Poland on Thursday.

France setter Benjamin Toniutti was spectacular as he distributed the ball evenly upon his spikers with four players scoring double digits to top over the Iranians 25-18, 14-25, 25-19, 29-27.

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Antonin Rouzier and Earvin Ngapeth both scored 19 points to lead France while Kevin Tillie scored 18 and Kevin Le Roux added 10 points.

Top scorer Amir Ghafour for Iran was not in condition to play as he was taken out of the game in the second set. Shahram Mahmoudi took over his place as he top scored with 18 points.

"I have to give credit to my setter and spikers for how they were fighting today," France coach Laurent Tillie said. "I actually told Toniutti to observe the way Marouf plays. Maybe this helped us."

In other Pool D matches, the United States' dynamic duo of Matthew Anderson and Taylor Sander combined for 21 points to shut out the Puerto Ricans and claimed their second victory in the competition 25-15, 25-8, 25-20.

Second seeded Italy also won its second match against Belgium, dropping the first set but coming back strong in the next three sets to defeat the Belgians 26-28, 25-15, 25-16, 28-26.

France now leads Pool D with 7 points, the United States in second with 6 while Italy and Iran are tied in third with 5 points each. Belgium dropped to 5^th place while Puerto Rico is yet to win a match.

The top four teams from each pool will go on to the qualifying round of 16. They will be divided into two pools of eight countries. The three teams who emerged on top of their respective pools will go on to the semi-finals scheduled to start Sept. 20.

TagsAntonin Rouzier, Amir Ghafour, Kevin Tillie, Matthew Anderson, Taylor Sander