KARACHI: Pakistan were on Tuesday downed by strong South Korea 3-0 in a crucial game of the 12th Asian Men’s Under-18 Volleyball Championship in Porsharifi Gymnasium in Tabriz, Iran.
The set scores were 25-12, 25-20 and 25-16. Hamid Movahedi’s charges completely failed to repeat the performance of their previous matches.
The win took South Korea to the semi-finals and also the 2019 World Championships. Pakistan will now face New Zealand again in the classification phase on Wednesday (today).
The draws, which attracted severe criticism from the participating nations, show that the winners of Pakistan-New Zealand outing will then play an 11th place play-off.Pakistan coach Movahedi has also been confused by the draws. “South Korea beat Pakistan and qualified for the semi-finals and we will play for the 11th to 14th places now. Nobody here can answer the queries of the teams about these perplexing draws. This is for the first time that such draws have been made,” Movahedi told ‘The News’ from Tabriz.
Pakistan thrashed New Zealand 3-0 when the event began. The Green-shirts, featuring for the first time at this stage, then upstaged Oman 3-1 on Monday to set up a clash with South Korea, the strongest at the 17-team event. Uzbekistan have skipped the event.Meanwhile, Chinese Taipei defeated Australia 3-0 to make it to the quarter-finals.
