Gao goal keeps China in World Cup contention

WUHAN, Hubei - A late penalty kick from Gao Lin kept alive China's slim hope of qualifying for next year's World Cup as Marcello Lippi's side beat Uzbekistan 1-0 at home on Thursday.

"I always tell my players that when there is still a theoretical chance we have no reason to give up," said Lippi, who guided Italy to a World Cup championship in 2006.

"We should make every effort to achieve it. Now we need the same attitude in the last match (away against Qatar)."

China wasted several clear chances until the 84th minute, when defender Feng Xiaoting was fouled in the area, drawing the penalty. Gao struck the ball to the bottom left corner to preserve the host's mathematical chance of advancing from Asian qualifying.

"From a professional view, I admit that luck was on our side, but the match also showed the team still has much to improve," added Lippi.

With one game left, against Qatar, China sits fifth in six-team Group A with nine points from nine matches. Iran and South Korea are first and second. A third-place finish would earn the chance of vying for a playoff berth.

After Thursday's matches, Syria was third with a better goal difference over Uzbekistan, though both have accumulated 12 points.

China must beat Qatar with enough goals and hope Syria and Uzbekistan both lose their final matches.

Qatar's hopes were snuffed out by a 3-1 loss to Syria on Wednesday.

"We need to concentrate on ourselves to improve in the following days. I do not compare us with other teams," said Lippi. "But if Syria loses to Iran 3-0, a 1-0 victory for us might be enough. Let's see what happens."

China had a scoring chance after just four minutes on Thursday when winger Wu Lei caught up to a loose ball in the central area but blasted his volley just wide of the right post.

A sold-out crowd of 51,666 at Wuhan Sports Center drove on the home side with the rhythmic thud of drums as China dominated the first half.

The home side should have broken the deadlock on a huge chance nine minutes before the break when central midfielder Zhang Xizhe broke through the visitor's back line with a smart touch to dash into the area all alone - only to fire his shot straight at keeper Ignatiy Nesterov.

Uzbekistan also spurned a one-on-one chance two minutes later, when winger Marat Bikamaev dispossessed Deng Hanwen and cut back from the left flank for Igor Sergeev, who struck wide in front of an open net.

Open play from both sides didn't bring a goal until Gao's penalty kick.

Gao, who plays for Guangzhou Evergrande in the Chinese Super League, gave credit to his teammates.

"We created this victory through our own efforts," he said. "I felt pressure for the penalty because everyone's hopes were resting on me."

It was just the second victory for China in the last-12 team campaign, which China reached for the first time since qualifying for its first-ever World Cup finals in 2002.

Xinhua