TOKYO, Nov 18: Olympic champions Serbia and Montenegro and European silver medallists France faced unexpectedly tough challenges before overcoming African threats in the World Cup men’s volleyball tournament in Japan on Tuesday.

The Serbian spikers, most of them among Yugoslavia’s Sydney Olympic winners, found themselves in trouble in the first set against the Egyptians in Tokyo but recovered for a 28-30, 25-18, 25-21, 25-12 win.

In Nagano, which hosted the 1998 Winter Olympics, France struggled to fend off a spirited challenge from African champions Tunisia as they crawled back from two sets down for a 23-25, 23-25, 25-18, 25-21, 18-16 victory.

Serbian spiker Slobodan Boskan said: “We couldn’t play well in the first set. We got off to a good start, but somehow we lost self-confidence in attacks and made a few mistakes that we should not do.”

“But we played much better in the next three sets. I hope the set we lost today does not cost us anything in the tournament,” added Boskan, who replaced Vladimir Grbic, sidelined with a kidney stone problem.

Egypt’s head coach Veselin Vukovic, from Serbia and Montenegro, appeared satisfied with his team’s performance against his mother country.

“It was my first time that we played against Serbia and Montenegro. It’s natural that I was emotional when the national flag was hoisted, but it’s my job to coach the Egyptian national team,” said Vukovic.

“It was important to take a set off Serbia and Montenegro because it gives a big motivation for our next match.”

Egyptian captain Hamdy Elsafy Awad agreed. “We have a very good feeling, because we took one set from Serbia, top favourites with Brazil and Italy. If it were other teams, we can win two sets or even a match,” he said.

French coach Philippe Blain said his team had had trouble in their serves and service receiving.

“I’m not happy with the way we played, but Laurent Capet gave us a lot of points off his attacks and that’s why we were able to come back and win the game,” said Blain after the 113-minute match.

Tunisia’s coach Antonio Giacobbe said: “We had the opportunity for a very big win. It was a historic chance for us to beat a team as good as France. It will help my players against the other teams in this competition.”

It was a third straight win for Serbia and Montenegro and a second against one loss for France.

In other matches, world champions Brazil eased aside Venezuela 25-19, 25-16, 25-20, while the United States outclassed China 23-25, 25-20, 25-20, 25-19.

Collated results:

In Tokyo: USA bt China 3-1 (23-25, 25-20, 25-20, 25-19); Serbia Montenegro bt Egypt 3-1 (28-30, 25-18, 25-21, 25-12); Japan bt Canada 3-2 (25-21, 25-16, 25-27, 20-25, 15-13)

In Nagano: Brazil bt Venezuela 3-0 (25-19, 25-16, 25-20); France bt Tunisia 3-2 (23-25, 23-25, 25-18, 25-21, 18-16); Italy bt South Korea 3-1 (25-18, 21-25, 25-18, 25-21).—AFP