Football
Michael Church, Asia correspondent 7y

Marcello Lippi upbeat despite China setback against Syria

Marcello Lippi sought out the positives despite seeing his China side succumb to a late equaliser against Syria on Tuesday evening that put his team's World Cup hopes in further jeopardy.

China's chances of qualifying for the finals in Russia were already slim, but Ahmed Al Saleh's goal in injury time cost Lippi's team two points after Gao Lin and Wu Xi had scored in the second half of their meeting in Malacca to cancel out Mahmoud Al Mawas' opener.

But with the country's hopes of qualifying for next year's finals now out of their hands, Lippi sought solace in China's second-half display against the Syrians while lamenting his lack of forwards.

"We always try to play entertaining football and the second half proved that," the former Italy boss said. "I hope we can keep at that level and improve from there.

"We need new forwards. We've always been short of forwards so we have to stick to the right strategy."

China looked to be on course for a victory that would revitalise their attempt to qualify for the World Cup finals for the first time since their only previous appearance in 2002 when Wu gave his side the lead with just 15 minutes remaining.

But Al Saleh's curling injury-time free kick shattered those hopes as China dropped to the bottom of the group following Qatar's surprise 3-2 win over South Korea later in the evening.

"It's a shame we only gained a point from this game," Lippi said. "We deserved the three points.

"In the first half we were not outstanding. They had a penalty, although our goalkeeper didn't touch their forward.

"Our performance in the second half improved significantly and we managed to come back after going behind and we even took the lead, but unfortunately in the last minute the other side gained a free kick and this free kick was fatal to us.

"Now there is only one possibility left: we have to beat Uzbekistan by two goals in our next match and then hope they lose when we play Qatar.

"We will try everything we can to grasp this last chance, but if we had taken three points today the whole picture would be more optimistic."

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