The second round of the World Championship will take place over four competition days, from Friday to Monday (August 29 – September 1), with two matches a day, always serving off at 17:00 and 20:30 local time (10:00 and 13:30 UTC).
Interestingly, six of the eighth matches will be contested between teams from the same continent, with the upcoming all-Asian clash between the home team of Thailand and the crowd’s foreign favorites Japan definitely sparking the most excitement in Bangkok.
That game will highlight the program on the first day of eighthfinal action and, of course, the stands are expected to be full again as Thailand take on Japan in Friday’s late match. The home team finished second in Pool A after a narrow loss to the Netherlands in the tie-breaker overtime of the first-place decider on Tuesday. Japan, who are also known to have a lot of fans in Thailand, emerged as the undefeated Pool H winners, after downing defending world champions Serbia on Wednesday. The latter will try to recover as they face unbeaten Pool A toppers Netherlands in an all-European clash in the eighthfinal round opener on Friday.
Saturday’s program will offer two all-European match-ups. First, the world’s number one team, reigning Olympic and Volleyball Nations League champions Italy will be challenged by Germany. Expectedly, the Italians dominated Pool B and won it with full points. Germany finished Pool G runners-up, but not before giving favorites Poland a lot of hard time in Wednesday’s deciding match for the first place in the pool and conceding only deep into the overtime of the fifth set. It was a huge battle to avoid Italy as the next opponent, but winners Poland will not have an easy day on Saturday as they meet Pool B runners-up Belgium in the second match. The Belgians showed a lot of grit, even against Italy, in Phuket and no intention to go back home soon.
