TEHRAN (February 19) – The ever-enthusiastic chants of the Iranian fan base were quieted at the Greco-Roman World Cup Thursday morning as rival Azerbaijan shocked the home squad by the match score, 6-2.

Wrestling without four of the their biggest stars, including Olympic champions Hamid SORYAN and Omid NOROOZI, the Iranians could only must a pair of victories against an Azerbaijan team that won close matches and rarely gave up extra points.

“We took a bad loss to Iran in last year’s World Cup and we were hoping to avenge it here,” said Azerbaijan wrestling coach Jamshid HHEYRABADI. “We were in training camp for three months studying their technique and there is no question the loss of championship wrestlers influenced their performance.”

The Azerbaijanis would later top Germany (7-1) and Sweden (7-1) to make the gold medal finals against Team Russia. The finals appearance will be the first for a Greco-Roman team from Azerbaijan. Their freestyle squad won the World Cup in 2004 and 2009.

For their part the Russians blitzed past their opponents, earning dominating team victories against Hungary (5-3) Turkey (6-2) and Armenia (7-1). The 2013 team champions, the Russians were led on day one by 2012 Olympic champion Roman VLASOV at 75kg, as he went 3-0 on the day.

"There was no difference to us if we met Iran or Azerbaijan in the final, said Russian head coach Gogi Koguashvili. "We are here to win the World Cup no matter who our opponent."

At 80kg Evgeny SALEEV (RUS) avenged his loss to Peter BACSI (HUN) at the 2014 world championships earning the victory in the rematch, 7-6.

The other most notable individual win of the day might’ve belonged to Reza KAYAALP (TUR) who bested a very game 2014 junior world champion in Sergey SEMENOV. The youngster opened up an impressive 4-0 lead early in the first only to fall victim to Kayaalp’s immense pressure and consistent offense. Kayaalp kept the youth at bay, winning 7-4, even as his country fell 6-2.

The Russians will face Azerbaijan in tomorrow’s finals at 430pm local. For full results ...(http://unitedworldwrestling.org/article/day-one-updated-results-and-notes).

The full list of matchups and start times are as follow:

1st-2nd: Russia v. Azerbaijan
3rd-4th: Turkey v. Iran
5th-6th: Hungary v. Sweden
7th-8th: Sweden v. Armenia

February 20, Friday
10:00 to 13:00   Finals – 7th-8th, 5th-6th
15:00 to 18:00   Finals – 3rd-4th, 1st-2nd