There was no unexpected twist. The Chinese national soccer team suffered another shock loss. It suffered a crushing seven-run loss in the match against Japan, and suffered an upset loss despite numerical superiority against Saudi Arabia. After the match, some players were in tears, and fans shouted in the audience for the replacement of Croatian coach Branko Ivankovic. This is truly a “falling Chinese soccer.”
China lost to Saudi Arabia 1-2 in the second Group C match of the third Asian qualifying round for the 2026 FIFA World Cup in North Korea and the U.S. at the Suowwan Football Stadium in Dalian, China on Tuesday (Korea time). China ranks 87th and Saudi Arabia 56th in FIFA rankings.
He just got off to a good start. He scored an own goal from an opponent team’s corner kick in the 14th minute of the first half to break the balance. Five minutes later, he got a red card for his dirty work by the opponent team that fell after the competition. Mohammed Canno kicked the Chinese player in the chest. Less than 20 minutes into the first half, China had not only a 1-0 lead but also a numerical advantage.
However, since then, the game has seemed to be one more player short of China. We lowered our defense line early on and focused on defense. Rather, Saudi Arabia, which is lacking one player, maintained a higher ball possession and led the game. In the end, China allowed Hasan Kadej to equalize in the 39th minute of the first half.
China failed to display numerical advantage in the second half at all. It seemed to disrupt the balance at the beginning of the second half, but the game was canceled after VAR. He could hardly take the lead afterwards. Rather, he was hit again by Kadej’s powerful header at a corner kick in the 45th minute of the second half. In the end, China ended up losing 1-2. China had one more player for more than 70 minutes, but Saudi Arabia had three points. 토토사이트
On the day, China’s ball possession rate was 42.7 percent, which was even lower than that of Saudi Arabia (57.3 percent). Despite the numerical advantage, the number of shots fired was also 15-11, while the number of shots fired was only one and Saudi Arabia had three. It was a glimpse of China’s performance on the day despite its numerical advantage caused by the opponent’s exit in the 19th minute of the first half.
The result shocked the audience the most in China. “After China lost 1-2 to Saudi Arabia, the audience was furious and shouted in unison that Ivankovic should be replaced,” China’s Sohu said shortly after the match. Another article said that Zhang Wening shed tears in the stadium after the match. Immediately after the match, the atmosphere in the stadium was clearly showing the current state of Chinese soccer falling.
China, which suffered a crushing 0-7 defeat in an away match in Japan, lost all of its two matches, falling to the bottom of Group C early on. China is the only team among the six teams to have lost in Group C. China has lost all of its matches. It allowed nine runs per point and its margin was -8. In the third qualifying round, the top and second places in each group will advance to the World Cup finals, while the third and fourth places will decide who will advance to the finals through the fourth qualifying round. The fifth and sixth places will be eliminated as they are. With only two qualifying matches to play, Chinese soccer seems to have already ended its challenge to advance to the World Cup finals for the first time in 24 years.