Italy beat China 3-0 (25-20, 25-18, 25-23) - duration 1:09
30-Jun, start time: 16:00, end time: 17:09 - Attendance: 4,000 China lost the game to Italy
In the first set, Italy came out with a full play of its technical superiority. Luigi's powerful service, Andrea's strong spikes plus Hristo and Alessandro's formed a big blockage to China's attack. They took the first lead before the first time-out with 8:6. But with He Jiong's spikes in the back court and Zheng Liang and Shi Hairong's blocks, China caught up with Italy with 14:14. However, China's efforts was soon thwarted when Italy ended the set with 25:20. In the second set, China took a temperary lead in the first time-out with 8:7. But with Cristian's explosive spikes and China's untimely errors in setting and service, Italy soon took over the lead with 18:12 and kept the lead to the end with 25:18. Though Italy attempted to keep the momentum going for the third set, China came out with Wu Xiaojiang and Lu Fei's timely blocks and Shi Hairong's timely spikes and took the first time-out with 8:6. Yet, despite China's aggressive efforts, Italy took the set with 25:23 and wore down the host team. CCTV 5 recorded the match of 70 minutes, and planned to broadcast it later the evening. About 20 media, included about 40 journalists and photographers from China Sports Daily, Beijing Evening News, Beijing Youth came to the competition and interviewed the coaches and players.
