China suffer familiar sinking feeling in bid for World Cup dream

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 today in the United Arab Emirates, where the match is taking place because of the coronavirus. China then face Saudi Arabia next week.