Nakhon, Ratchasima, Thailand, September 23 -- China and hosts Thailand take on Australia and Japan respectively in a must-win match on Wednesday to keep their hopes of making it to the semi-finals in the inaugural Asian Men’s Cup Volleyball Championship alive.

China, world number 10 and silver medalists at the 2006 Doha Asian Games, finished third in Group A after going down to Korea and Iran in the group round-robin preliminaries. They are due to challenge tall and towering Australia , whose height average is 201cm, in a do-or-die quarter-final on Wednesday.

Aussies came in second place in Group B, collecting five points from two wins against one loss to Japan .

China have Bian Hongmin, the tournament’s tallest player who stands 210cm tall, and a hard-attacking duo of Cui Jianjun and Jiang Kun, while Australia’s major force is scintillating blocking as nine of them are 200cm tall and above.

The Australian team are also loaded with exceptional tactics including powerful jump serves by William Thwaite, who is a real nightmare for receivers, and fast spikes from Igor Yudin and devastating left-hander David Ferguson. Therefore, a daunting task is likely to await China in the Wednesday quarter-finals.

Meanwhile, the host side need a must win over Japan in another quarter-final match to remain on course for the final four. Although no one in the Japanese team competed in the Beijing Olympic Games, to beat them is not easy.

“Wednesday will be our last chance to prove our ability if we can book a berth for the final four. As far as Iam concerned, Japan finished joint 11th in the Olympic Games, but no one in the Japanese team here competed in Beijing . I think they are not too strong like China and Korea,”Thai head coach Monchai Supajirakul commented on Tuesday.

“therefore, I think my team stand a chance of beating Japan if we play our best and try to avoid making any unforced spiking and serving mistakes. Our ultimate goal is to compete in the semi-finals. However, if we miss the target, we have to do our best in the remaining matches for a better place in the standing.

“The Japanese are not that tall. Their height average is 190cm against my players’187cm. I think we should have more chances of blocking them effectively and efficiently in the Wednesday’ match.”

Contesting the knock-out quarter-finals at The Mall Nakhon Ratchasima MCC Hall on Wednesday are the Doha Asian Games champions and world number 19 Korea , which will be pitted against the South East Asian Games winners Indonesia, followed by the Thailand-Japan encounter.

Chinese Taipei will challenge Iran while the Asian champions Australia go up against China. The four winning teams will advance to the semi-finals, while the losers will compete in the 5th-8th classification round.