China walk tight rope in W/Cup qualifiers face Vietman
A familiar sense of crisis threatens to envelop Chinese football with the men’s national team heading into crunch 2022 World Cup qualifiers still looking for their first point and first goal.
China under President Xi Jinping have grand plans to become a leading football power, with ambitions to host and even win the World Cup one day.
But the country of 1.4 billion people has reached the World Cup only once, in 2002, and Li Tie’s side were soundly beaten 3-0 by Australia in their opening match of this final round of Asian qualifying for Qatar, then lost 1-0 to old rivals Japan.
Despite boasting Espanyol’s Wu Lei and Brazilian-born Elkeson in attack, the side failed to register an attempt on goal in 180 minutes of football and the pressure is building on former Everton midfielder Li.
That pressure will ratchet up significantly if they do not beat Vietnam on Thursday in the United Arab Emirates. China then face Saudi Arabia next week.
China and Vietnam occupy the bottom two places of the six-nation Group B table Vietnam have at least scored one goal.
Only the teams that finish in the top two in Group A and Group B are guaranteed to reach Qatar. Two rounds of matches over the next two weeks will go a long way to deciding who books their tickets for 2022.
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China’s talisman Wu came on as a substitute in Espanyol’s 2-1 win over Real Madrid in La Liga and then jetted over to the UAE to join his international team-mates.
“It’s an important win for my club and I hope to bring the momentum to the national team,” the 29-year-old said, according to Xinhua news agency.