Thailand are bidding to make their first ever appearance at the Olympic Games. Only one team from the Asian qualification meet will earn a spot at Tokyo 2020.
South Korea will meet Taiwan in the other semi-final.
Thailand defeated Australia 3-0 (25-12, 25-15, 25-13) for their second successive win to finish as Pool A winners in front of a near capacity crowd at Chatchai Hall last night (Jan 9).
Taiwan, who beat Australia on Wednesday, joined Thailand in the last four as pool runners-up while winless Australia bowed out.
“We played better than we did in our first match against Taiwan,” said Wilavan Apinyapong in an on-court interview. “We were off to a slow start against Taiwan and we made sure that didn't happen today.”
Wilavan said the match against Kazakhstan will be tough.
“Several of their [Kazakhstan] players came out of retirement to play in this tournament so they are relying on experience,” said Wilavan.
“We will have to be at our best in the semi-final. We have a day to prepare for the match and we will look into things that we can improve.”
Earlier, South Korea defeated Kazakhstan 3-0 (25-20, 25-16, 25-21) to finish as Pool B winners.
Both teams went into the final pool game on the back of two successive 3-0 wins and it was the Koreans who progressed to the last four with a perfect record.
Kazakhstan posed some serious threat early on but the Koreans managed to stave the challenge.
Indonesia edged Iran in a 3-2 (25-21, 25-15, 21-25, 24-26, 15-12) thriller as the Southeast Asian side ended the pool phase on a high note after two losses.
Japan have qualified for the Olympics as hosts, while Serbia, China, the United States, Brazil, Russia and Italy have booked their Tokyo tickets after winning the intercontinental qualifiers in August last year.