A point of no return - the Chinese scramble for another World Cup appearance
When the world's most populous nation beat Syria 3-1 in Sharjah, it ensured one thing: China will not be eliminated from the contention. Yes, for Syria, this defeat was a meh word - Syria has already qualified to the same phase, and changed some players. But China, this win was worth paying, at least, for a short period. Yet we talk about China, we have to admit this: their qualification was not as easy as they thought. China was drawn in a fairly easy group, maybe even easier than Australia, South Korea, Saudi Arabia and Iran's, when FIFA President Infantino issued for the 2022 FIFA World Cup. At least on paper only. The Chinese Dragons were also led by the experienced World Cup winner, Marcello Lippi. By the time the draw was made, 17 July 2019, the situation was changing rapidly. Syria was already under crisis after its humiliating group stage ousting in the 2019 AFC Asian Cup. The three others weren't China's opponents either; the Philippines did qualify for the sam...