The semifinals of the AVC Men`s Volleyball Nations Cup in Manama are now confirmed for Monday. Hosts Bahrain are scheduled to compete against Korea in one match, while the other semifinal will be a rematch of last year`s final, featuring defending champions Qatar versus Pakistan. These four teams earned their spots by emerging victorious from the quarterfinal matches held on Saturday. In parallel, the tournament also began its classification round for 9th to 11th place on Friday, with Thailand securing a straight-sets win over the Philippines.
In what proved to be the most dramatic quarterfinal encounter, defending champions Qatar secured a hard-fought 3-2 victory over Vietnam (29-31, 25-21, 25-15, 22-25, 15-12). Notable performances for Qatar included middle blocker Belal Nabel Abunabot with an impressive eight kill blocks, and outside hitters Raimi Wadidie and Ribeiro Renan, contributing five aces and five blocks respectively. Qatar`s opposite Youssef Oughlaf and Vietnam`s Nguyen Van Quoc Duy were joint top scorers in the match, each tallying 22 points.
Pakistan advanced to the semifinals after a 3-1 comeback win against Indonesia (20-25, 25-21, 25-20, 25-17). Pakistan displayed strong blocking throughout the match. Their effort was spearheaded by outside hitter and captain Murad Jehan, who scored 20 points. For Indonesia, opposite Rivan Nurmulki led all scorers with 22 points.
Korea also defeated Australia in four sets, winning 3-1 (25-23, 25-18, 22-25, 25-23). Although the Australians held a significant advantage in blocking with 15 stuffs to Korea`s six, the Koreans managed to secure the victory. Subong Heo was Korea`s leading scorer with 18 points. Australia`s 22-year-old opposite William D`Arcy-Miles was the highest-scoring player of the match, finishing with 29 points.
Hosts Bahrain completed the semifinal lineup by sweeping Chinese Taipei 3-0 (25-18, 25-22, 35-33) in a closely contested match, particularly in the final set. Bahrain`s opposite Ali Khamis Ebrahim was key to their success, contributing four of Bahrain`s 16 kill blocks and two aces, leading his team with 17 points. Chinese Taipei`s top scorer was his counterpart, Chang Yu-Sheng, who recorded a match-high 20 points.
Meanwhile, the three-team round-robin to determine the final standings from ninth to 11th place commenced on Friday evening. Thailand began this phase with a dominant 3-0 straight-set win over the Philippines (25-21, 25-20, 25-18). Thailand`s opposite and captain, Amornthep Khonhan, was the top scorer in that match with 14 points.
Thailand had an opportunity to clinch the ninth position on Sunday when they were scheduled to play against New Zealand. Also taking place on Sunday were the semifinals for the 5th place classification, which saw Chinese Taipei facing Australia and Indonesia competing against Vietnam.
The highly anticipated semifinal matches are scheduled to be played on Monday. The first semifinal between Bahrain and Korea is set to begin at 16:30 local time (13:30 UTC). This will be followed by the second semifinal featuring Pakistan and Qatar at 19:00 local time (16:00 UTC).
Oliver Wrenwick 
Jasper Thornfield