In the second quarterfinal of the day, South Korea eliminated China with a score of 3:1 (17:25, 25:21, 25:22, 29:27) and secured a spot among the top four teams at the men's Asian Championship in Fukuoka.
China started stronger and convincingly took the first set 25:17, but then the Koreans turned the tide of the match. South Korea won the next two sets 25:21 and 25:22, and the drama unfolded in the fourth set. China tried to force a tie-break, but the Koreans held on in the extended play and closed out the match 29:27.
Interestingly, the two teams finished with only a one-point difference in total points – 96:95 for South Korea. The Koreans had an advantage in attack – 61:55, while China was significantly more effective in blocking – 17:10. South Korea scored 5 aces against 3 for the Chinese, and points from opponent errors were perfectly even – 20:20.
In defense, the advantage was also with the winners – 67:54 digs, while China had a minimal superiority in reception – 88:86.
The top scorers for South Korea were Ho and Im with 21 points each.
For China, Li and Wang finished with 16 points each. Here we only use the surnames, as they are recognizable from the official match statistics, without deciphering the initials from the graphic.
The victory earned South Korea 6.71 points for the world ranking, moving the team up two positions to No. 23 with 151.67 points. China lost the same amount of points and dropped two places to No. 34 with 124.08 points.
In the semi-final, South Korea will face the winner of the Japan – India quarterfinal. In the other half, Australia awaits the winner of Iran – Chinese Taipei. The bracket confirms these two semi-final pairings.
Thus, after the first two quarterfinals, half of the participants in the Top 4 are already known – Australia and South Korea, and the remaining two spots will be decided on September 11.

photo:volleyballworld.com