China beat Russia 3-0 at four-nation soccer tournament

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Thursday, January 29, 2004

China beat Russia 3-0 at four-nation soccer tournament

The Chinese under-23 soccer team jumped to a good start in the Four-Nation friendly tournament in South China's Liuzhou on Jan. 28 as they breezed past Russia 3-0 in the opening round.

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The Chinese under-23 soccer team jumped to a good start in the Four-Nation friendly tournament in South China��s Liuzhou on Jan. 28 as they breezed past Russia 3-0 in the opening round.

Goals from Xu Liang, Du Zhenyu and Cao Ming put several thousand local fans in the standings in triumph, which was compounded by the showing-up of former Chinese team coach Bora Milutinovic.

The Russian players, most under 21, were clearly no match for their stronger and older opponents, whose stamina owed much to the intensive training in the past two months.

"The players did reap good experience from the game and we alsofound some loopholes," said Chinese head coach Shen Xiangfu.

"I am especially satisfied with the new hands in the team," added Shen, who has been coaching the U-23 team, also called the Olympic team, for three years.

Cao, joining the Chinese squad 40 days ago, tapped in the third goal of the match in the 80th minute after Xu opened the score with a curved free kick eight minutes into the first half and Du headed in the second in the 39th minute.

"I am a little surprised by the result," said Russian coach Andrew Dmitriev.

Russian team leader Boyis Pronin thought age difference and short of time for training caused the defeat.

"They (the Chinese team) are older than my players. And what's more, my team only trained together for three days after we called them up on Saturday," said Pronin.

China take on Morocco Friday while Russia face Romania in the event which serves as a tune-up for China's Olympic qualifier starting in March.

Source: Xinhua

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