Football
Michael Church, Asia correspondent 7y

Marcello Lippi: China success not just about World Cup qualification

Marcello Lippi has stressed his primary objective is ensuring an improvement in the performances of China's national team, even if the country is eliminated from qualifying for the 2018 World Cup finals in Tuesday's clash with Syria.

China must win the game in the Malaysian city of Malacca to maintain any hope of qualifying for the country's second appearance at the finals but face a Syria side who are also fighting to keep their chances alive.

China sit in fifth place in the six-team group with just five points from seven games, with four of those points collected since Lippi replaced Gao Hongbo in October.

Defeat would end China's hopes of finishing in the top three positions in the group, but Lippi says his main concern is that the team continues to move forward.

"Since I took over this team last October, our plan has been always about increasing the performance of the China national team," Lippi, who led Italy to the 2006 World Cup, said.

"The team only got one point from the first four matches, and we were very far from the World Cup. However, we didn't give up, and we've been working very hard to increase our own quality."

China have not qualified for the finals of the World Cup since their debut appearance in 2002, when Bora Milutinovic's team lost all three games against Costa Rica, Brazil and Turkey.

Last year, Gao took the country through to the final phase of Asia's qualifying tournament for the World Cup for the first time since China appeared on the global stage, but the performances under the former Guizhou Renhe coach were disappointing.

Gao quit after a 2-0 loss against Uzbekistan in October and Lippi was appointed several weeks later, securing a draw with Qatar in his first qualifier before leading China to only their second ever win over South Korea in March.

A 1-0 loss against group leaders Iran brought the Chinese back down to earth, but the improvement in the team has been noticeable since Lippi took the helm.

"I took this job with strong faith and passion, in order to improve the team," he said. "Maybe someone would see it a failure if we fail to qualify to the World Cup. However, I couldn't agree.

"There was only one point and it was already extremely difficult. Of course, I would do all I could to change the situation but if we can't I'd rather witness the development and improvement of Chinese football.

"That is the payoff I want to see and I don't see it as a failure."

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