Coach Sofwaan states players will focus on semifinals more intently

National Volleyball Team Coach Sofwaan Ahmed has said that the athletes will focus far more intently on the semifinals of the Asian Central Zone Volleyball Challenge currently ongoing in the Maldives.

Maldives lost to Kyrgyzstan last night in a highly challenging match during the Round Robin rounds. Although the players had performed resiliently, their performance was observed to have considerably declined in the second set.

With Kyrgyzstan clinching first rank after triumphing all three matches, they are now set to face off with Afghanistan who are ranked in fourth place. Maldives, placed second, is matched with Tajikistan who defeated Afghanistan yesterday.

Maldives had earlier triumphed over Tajikistan with a score of 4-1 in the group stages. However, Coach Sofwaan maintained that although Maldives is facing an opponent they have already beaten once, the game will not be easy.

"We will prepare more seriously for the semifinals as well. And the Tajikistan team will also take the match seriously. They will try harder, especially because they lost to our team before," he said.

The semifinals match is slated for Tuesday night and the first semifinal game will take place tomorrow evening.

Volleyball experts say that the biggest challenge for Maldives is Kyrgyzstan however, note that they are not undefeatable.