China, who failed in their last all six attempts to qualify for the World Cup finals, open their seventh campaign on their home turf with a match against UAE, who upset Uzbekistan 4-1 in the opening game.

Bora Milutinovic, China's head coach, made a shake-up of China's midfield, replacing Shen Si and Li Ming, who played as starters throughout the preliminary round, with Qi Hong and Li Xiaopeng. With this change, China's 11 starters never played together in a game in the past.

The change paid off.

Li Xiaopeng opened China's scoring at 3rd minute into the match. He burst from an unmarked position to the goalline, tapping home a pinpoint pass from striker Hao Haidong, who is argubly the best forward in China.

Four minutes later, China's skipper Ma Mingyu, under fire for his mediocre performance in the preliminary round, gave UAE' goalkeeper Juma Humaid another scare with a long shot which flew over the crossbar.

UAE failed to find the touch which helped them thrash Uzbekistan and sometimes fell victim to China's offside trap.

Their morale was dented completely in the 19th minute when Qi Hong headed in China's second goal. The playmaker met a comfortable pass from left defender Sun Jihai and gave Humaid no time to react with a blank-point header.

In the 33th minute, Hao Haidong made it 3-0. The speedy forward raced to a headed pass from Fan Zhiyi and knocked it past Humaid.

China will face Oman at Muscat on August 31.

The Asian World Cup qualifiers are playing in two groups, with the top finisher of each group automatically qualifying for the finals. The better second place team will play off against Australia for an extra berth.

(China Daily 08/25/2001)