(Manama) – Bahrain’s dream campaign came to an abrupt end as the quarter-finalists were made known in the 2017 FIVB Boys’ U19 World Championship.
Bahrain bowed to South American giants Brazil in straight sets (14-25, 15-25, 18-25) in their Round of 16 clash played in front of a packed home crowd.
The Brazilians are now on to the last eight, where they are joined by some of the other top teams from around the world including Japan, the Czech Republic, France, Russia, Iran, Korea and Egypt.
The quarter-finals took place on Friday at Shaikh Isa Sports City in Riffa. Matches begin from 11am with playoff games for teams to be ranked 17th to 20th. The last eight kick off their round at 1pm. All are welcome to attend. Tickets are available at the gate and they cost 500 fils per person.
It was a disappointing conclusion to what started off to be a promising tournament for Bahrain, who scored three big wins in four preliminary round contests. But they could not carry their momentum in today’s knockout contest, and their rivals took advantage.
Looking like a totally different team from past days, the Bahrainis got off to a slow start and never recovered. They did go narrowly ahead in the beginning of the third set, but that is as far they could go and Brazil eventually pulled away for the win.
“Brazil respected our team so much by sending their strongest players on the court today,” said Bahrain head coach Yusuf Khalifa.
“They played with strong service and were very organised with their blocking. Of course, this is Brazil. They are never an easy team to play against. But I am happy to say that the positive learning for this team, plainly, is that they were able to play against Brazil.
