Japan team celebrating the qualification to the round of 16 as leader for the Pool B
Twelve other teams had already confirmed second round qualification early on Monday, as Serbia, Thailand, Puerto Rico (Pool A), Poland (Pool B), USA, Brazil, Slovenia, Dominican Republic (Pool C), Turkey, Peru, Italy and Chinese Taipei (Pool D) made their dreams a reality one day before the end of the first round.
After a rest day for the whole competition teams on Wednesday, the competition will be resumed on Thursday with 8 matches in the round of 16 where the winner of these encounter qualify for the quarterfinal for 1 to 8 positions, while losers compete for the play off 9 to 16 position.
A ground breaking clash between World No. 2 Brazil and No. 3 Italy highlight the quarters’ fixture on Thursday, which feature also a classic Asian clash between host Thailand and the World Ranking leaders China.
Other matches are defending champions Turkey v Dominican Republic, Japan v Egypt, Poland v Puerto Rico, Serbia v Greece, USA v Chinese Taipei, and Peru v Slovenia.
Beside the round of 16, Thursday’s programme include also 2 matches for the 17 to 20 positions which will be held in a round robin format between the teams finishing at the last position in their pools as Tunisia meet Mexico and Argentina face Algeria.
Among the whole competition teams, Serbia kept the record of being the only team who achieve the clean sheet in four matches achieving 4-0, beside being the only team who didn’t drop a set till now.
To read more news from this competition click onYouth World Championship 2013 W.
