China Route Hong Kong in Soccer FriendlyChina snatched a 1-0 victory over Hong Kong in a soccer friendly Tuesday in Hong Kong Stadium."I am satisfied with our young team's performance," said China' s head coach Bora Milutinovic from Yugoslavia, who tasted the first victory from three international encounters after he began to coach China' national team in February 2000. Coached by Milutinovic, China scored a 0-0 against Japan and lost to the Yugoslav 1-0 in March. He added:" The result was not important, the players did their best. We got many good chances, especially in the first half." But Milutinovic pointed out that Chinese should have endurance from their national team. China, ranked 63 in the world, controlled the first half by producing eight attempts while their sound defense gave no chance to the host team. The Chinese opened the scoring 20 minutes into the match as the teammaker Qi Hong slammed a powerful 20-yard shoot right into the right corner. Hong Kong's goalkeeper Chan Ka Ki showed fine reflexes to help save Hong Kong from a bigger loss. Hong Kong kept more aggressive in the second half and made six attempts but they failed to convert their scoring chances as forward Au Wai Lun headed a corner to the post and a solo shoot was saved by the Chinese goaltender Ou Chuliang. With the victory, China has a 9-3-3 head-to-head record against Hong Kong. In the previous encounter, China beat Hong Kong 1-0 in the Dynasty Cup in Japan in 1998. |
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