Argentina rallied back from one set down to beat China 3-2, scoring their first victory in the men's volleyball World Championships in Saitama, Japan on Sunday.

Argentina, who lost to Puerto Rico and Poland in previous matches, defeated China 22-25, 25-21, 17-25, 25-17, 17-15 in one hour and 44 minutes.

"At the beginning of this World Championship we could not win and could not express our own play. We expected it to be hard against China and we had many difficulties. The key factor in our victory was that the players could keep their composure in a difficult situation." said Jon Uriarte, head coach of Argentina.

Marcos Milinkovic pulled off a wonderful performance with a game-high 29 points for Argentina, while Gustavo Porporatto, Alejandro Spajic and Gaston Gianni added 15 respectively.

Due to a slow start and a string of unforced errors, Argentina lost the first set 25-22, but controlled the rhythm of the second set, pulling level 25-21.

In the third set, China took the lead twice at 8-6 and 16-13 before setting up a world-class performance with a 9-3 run to finish the set 25-16.

Argentina, who ranked sixth in the 2002 World Championships, soon geared up in the fourth set to completely overwhelm China and forced the match into the deciding set with a 25-17 win.

Both sides fought fiercely with the fifth set becoming a see-saw battlefield until 15-all before Giani scored the last two winning points for Argentina for the great comeback victory.

Shen Qiong had 20 points to lead the Chinese team, Wang Haichun had 16 and Sui Shengsheng 14.

"I expected the match to be tough and we had prepared for it. But we could not show our good points. When we are leading the game we can't maintain the winning momentum and finish the set. This is what we must improve when we play Egypt." said China's head coach Zhou Jianan.

China will play Egypt on Tuesday, while Argentina faces off against host Japan.

(Xinhua News Agency November 20, 2006)