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China Seek Another Small Step on Long March to World Cup
China will take another small step towards a first appearance in the World Cup finals if they can beat the United Arab Emirates in a qualifier on Thursday.
The Chinese party arrived on Sunday looking relaxed and confident ahead of the match in which a victory -- coupled with defeat for Qatar in their match against Uzbekistan on Friday -- would bring the World Cup ever closer.
"We hold an advantage at this stage but we haven't qualified until we have collected 17 points," coach Bora Milutinovic said.
"The competition is only at its halfway mark. Anything is possible in football."
While China have never qualified for the World Cup finals before, Milutinovic can hardly keep away from them.
If he steers China through the qualifiers, he will become the first man to lead five different countries in World Cup finals.
The hard-working Yugoslav, who turned 57 early this month, managed Mexico (1986), Costa Rica (1990), the United States (1994) and Nigeria (1998).
China currently top their qualifying group with 10 points from their four matches, followed by Qatar (8), UAE (7), Uzbekistan (6) and Oman (2). Those four have all played five matches, which gives China even more of an advantage.
"We have 10 points now. When we faced the UAE for the first time the UAE had three and we had none," said Milutinovic, who put the squad through behind-closed-doors training sessions during the weekend.
The UAE go into the match without suspended defenders Fahad Ali and Mohammed Qassim and Zuhair Bakhit (hamstring).
The UAE team were arriving back in Abu Dhabi on Monday after a flight delay held them back at Tashkent where their 1-0 win over Uzbekistan has given them a glimmer of hope for at least a second-place finish in the group.
The two winners of the Asian qualifying groups go through to the 2002 World Cup in South Korea and Japan. The two runners-up playoff for the chance of another playoff against Ireland, with the winner of that playoff also qualifying for the finals.
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