Gao Lin (R) of China vies with Adey Ashadh (C) of Maldives during the 2018 FIFA World Cup qualification football match in Wuhan, central China's Hubei Province, March 24, 2016. (Photo: Xinhua/Cheng Min)
China downed Maldives 4-0 with midfielder Jiang Ning's hattrick to keep their hope of qualifying for the 2018 FIFA World Cup alive at their penultimate match of Group C in the second round of Asian qualifiers on Thursday.
Before the match, the home side is at the brink of elimination with an awkward three wins, two draws and one defeat to rank the third of the group, which forced the Chinese Football Association to use native Gao Hongbo to replace Frenchman Alain Perrin as the head coach. After the victory, China now level Chinese Hong Kong on 14 points, but take the second place in the table by advantageous goal difference with one game to spare.
If Hong Kong can't defeat Qatar, who's already secured the first place with 18 points before the game, later in their last group game tonight, China will maintain their runners-up status of the group if they win their last match against Qatar on March 29 on home soil with 17 points, and will have a chance to be listed in the four best runners-up of all the eight groups to get through to the third round of the Asian qualifiers, where 12 teams will fight for 4.5 tickets to Russia. But even if China get 17 points, their fate will still be decided on the situation of other groups.
"We merely passed the test and just meet the basic standard tonight," lamented Gao Hongbo after the game. "We had 40 shots, but only scored four goals. It's not like a strong team."
"We have no other choice but to win the last match now."
China had a dream start by left midfielder Jiang Ning's third minute header on Wu Lei's left wing cross. Forward Yang Xu doubled the advantage on 12 minutes after receiving right back Zhao Mingjian's right wing cross. It seemed that the hosts will get more goals with obvious dominance in the midfield and with 78 minutes to play, but the visitors had some tenacious defending performance and even produced three goal-scoring chances in counter-attacks, which prevented China from scoring until the 84th minute, when Jiang Ning netted home by a well-taken shot inside the penalty area. Jiang added one more in injury time to seal the victory.
The hosts once again exposd their weakness in the finishing by wasting a dozen of scoring chances. It is so similar to the two goalless draws with Hong Kong, in which China hit the woodwork eight times in total.
Maldives showed their guts to cut the deficit in a few good quality counters, but striker Hassan Naiz squandered two good opportunities in both periods, and Easa Ismail nearly made a slide-in on 43 minutes but missed the right-wing low cross at the goal mouth.
China had to replace two starters Wu Xi and Yu Hai in the first half due to injury, which made Gao Hongbo feel unlucky after the game.
"Those are not tactical changes, the two players both got injured, so I was forced to take them out early. It's a bitter feeling. We played well in the first and last 15 minutes, but in the middle we lost accuracy," said Gao.
China will play Qatar at home in Xi'an on March 29.
