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China Launches Bid for World Cup Finals
China launched their seventh bid for the World Cup finals with a 3-0 win over the United Arab Emirates in an Asian qualifier in Shenyang on Saturday.
China got off to an ideal start with two goals in the first 19 minutes. Inspired striker Hao Haidong put icing on the cake as he hit in the home team's third goal.
Bora Milutinovic, China's head coach was satisfied with the result. "Strategically speaking, my players played a perfect game. We will try to win more games to move closer to our goal of qualifying."
Milutinovic's UAE counterpart Abdull Sager said that China's early goal proved fatal and deadly. "They played vey well in the first half. And their gaol in the second minute disrupted our game. They deserve the win."
He blame their loss on bad luck. "Our luck is rather bad," he said, "I think my players got the upper hand in the second half and should have scored at least two goals."
Milutinovic made a shake-up of China's midfield, replacing Shen Si and Li Ming, who played as starters throughout the preliminary round, with Qi Hong and Li Xiaopeng.
With this change, China's 11 starters never played together in a game in the past.
The change paid off.
With only two minutes into play, Li Xiaopeng drew the first blood for China, which failed in all their last six attempts to qualify for the World Cup finals. He burst from an unmarked position to the goalline, tapping home a pinpoint pass from striker Hao Haidong, who is argubly the best forward in China.
Four minutes later, China's skipper Ma Mingyu, under fire for his mediocre performance in the preliminary round, gave UAE's goalkeeper Juma Humaid another scare with a long shot which flew over the crossbar.
UAE failed to find the touch which helped them thrash Uzbekistan 4-1 in their opening game and sometimes fell victim to China's offside trap.
Their morale was dented completely in the 19th minute when Qi Hong headed in China's second goal. The playmaker met a comfortable pass from left fullback Sun Jihai and gave Humaid no time to react with a blank-point header.
In the 33th minute, Hao Haidong made it 3-0. The speedy forward raced to a headed pass from Fan Zhiyi and knocked it past Humaid.
The striker, who suffered an acrimonious relationship with Milutinovic for blaming the Serb incompetent, missed a chance in the 68th minute. A pass from his striking partner Yang Chen found him unmarked in the goalmouth. But the seemingly jaded Hao headed it over the bar.
China's attack edge seemed not as sharp as before when Hao was taken off in the 79th minute and they slowed down their attack pace, appearing content with the 3-0 lead.
Asian World Cup qualifiers are now undergoing in two groups, top finishers of which will automatically qualify for the finals. And the better second-placed team is to play off against a team from Europe for an extra berth.
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