China stunned the home crowd as they defeated Italy and have setup a finals showdown against another unlikely semifinals winner in the United States at the FIVB Women's Volleyball World Championship in Milan on Saturday.

With a sellout crowd at the Mediolanum Forum of 12,600 that are predominantly cheering for the Italian squad, Nadia Centoni started out on track for the host team as she took the lead 6-5 for Italy but Chunlei Zeng quickly turned things around for China and took back the lead at 8-7.

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A series of unforced errors from Italy and three block points for China widened the gap at 19-15 and by the time Italy got back from a timeout, it was all too late as China's star player Ting Zhu proved to be a force, finishing the set with a huge kill.

The second set was more of the same with Zhu scoring multiple kills cross court and over Brazilian blockers to take the set at 25-20 but the home crowd burst into cheers that gave the Italian squad a boost with Centonni, Antonella Del Core and Valentina Diouf responding to finally take a set 2-1.

Momentum was clearly on the Italian side in the fourth set as they took the lead at 14-11 but again Zhu, who scored 21 points in the first three sets, took back the lead for China at 18-15.

It was a seesaw battle from then on as both teams were tied at 28 apiece when China served and blocked an attempt by Italy to put them up for a match point which team captain Ruoqi Hui ending the match 25-21, 25-20, 20-25, 28-26.

Zhu led China with amazing 32 points with the help of Xinyue Yuan who contributed 16 points while Del Core top score for Italy with 16 points followed Centoni and Diouf both with 15 points each.

"The game was going to be difficult because there were a lot of fans," China coach Jenny Lang Ping said. "I told my players to learn about each other. We made sure we followed and didn't go with a second tempo. We didn't want to worry about errors, just kept our positive thinking."

China aims for their third title, winning the last two in 1982 and 1986. They will go up against team USA who shocked World No. 1 Brazil in their semifinals matchup.

TagsTing Zhu, Jenny Lang Ping, Nadia Centoni, Antonella Del Core