China displayed superb resilience when they pulled off a dramatic 3-2 win over Ukraine in their second group match of the FIFA World Youth Championship on Tuesday.

China, played for the final 23 minutes with 10 men, scored the winner in the 74th minute to wrap up their second win in as many games.

But Ukraine looked more dangerous from the start and created a good chance in the 8th minute through fluent teamwork when Oleksandr Sytnyk cut in from the left side to feed Aretem Milevskyi comfortably, and the striker shunned one defender only to see his blank-point shot parried by Chinese goalkeeper Yang Cheng.

Ukraine did not wait too long for their first goal and they craked China's defence with a lightening counter-attack in the 18th minute as forward Dmytro Vorobe beat defender Zhao Ming to drive the ball past Yang.

China pulled it even in the 30th minute when midfielder Hao Junmin charged down from the right flank to produce a deadly cross and forward Zhu Ting poached in to volley home the spectacular equaliser.

Chinese players, whose steps became heavy with the game going on in the sun-bathed Galgenwaard stadium, seemed to struggle against Ukraine's strong mettle, though they managed to absorb up Ukraine's attack with a close-up defence in the first half.

Ukraine, knowing a win would possibly put them through to the kockout stage after beating Panama 3-1 in their first match, stepped up their attack after the restart to rattle China's seemingly shaky defence.

Yang denied Milevskyi from close range again in the 63th minute when playmaker Oleksandr Aliiev's through ball put Vorobe unmarked racing into the area. The striker dished out a pinpoint pass to Milevskyi who just found it hard to put it past Yang.

One minute later, China made it 2-1 when they were awarded a penalty and striker Chen Tao buried it from the point.

But China's lead last for only three minutes and Ukraine found the net through Aliiev with a penalty in the 67th minute when Zhu got the marching order for arguing and pushing refree.

China, though reduced to 10 men, were resilient enough and regained the lead again in the 74th minute when midfielder Cui Peng scored off a corner by Chen.

China, who beat the odds to hold off Turkey 2-1 with a last-gasp goal in their first game, will play their last grouper with Panama on Friday.

Following are the collated standings of FIFA World Youth Championship Netherlands 2005 after Tuesday's games (tabulated under games played, won, drawn, lost, goals for, against, points):

Group A

1 Netherlands 1 1 0 0 2 1 3

2 Benin 1 0 1 0 1 1 1

3 Australia 1 0 1 0 1 1 1

4 Japan 1 0 0 1 1 2 0

Group B

China PR 2 2 0 0 5 3 6

Ukraine 2 1 0 1 5 4 3

Turkey 2 1 0 1 2 2 3

Panama 2 0 0 2 1 4 0

Group C

Spain 2 2 0 0 1 9 6

Morocco 2 1 0 1 6 3 3

Chile 2 1 0 1 7 7 3

Honduras 2 0 0 2 0 12 0

Group D

Germany 2 1 1 0 2 0 4

USA 2 1 1 0 1 0 4

Argentina 2 1 0 1 2 1 3

Egypt 2 0 0 2 0 4 0

Group E

Colombia 1 1 0 0 2 0 3

Canada 1 0 1 0 1 1 1

Syria 1 0 1 0 1 1 1

Italy 1 0 0 1 0 2 0

Group F

Switzerland 1 1 0 0 2 1 3

Nigeria 1 0 1 0 0 0 1

Brazil 1 0 1 0 0 0 1

South Korea 1 0 0 1 1 2 0

Source: Xinhua