The faint light of hope for Chinese women's football team to edged into the top eight among the 10 women teams competing for Athens Olympic title finally went out when Germany beat Mexico 2-0 here Tuesday.

The 1996 Atlanta Olympic silver medallist, who failed to squeeze into the semi-final at the 2000 Sydney games, had to wait for a chance described "impossible" by Zhang Haitao, head coach of Chinese women's team, to see whether they could stay for further games.

The Chinese women, who was crushed 8-0 by reigning world champion Germany, had set their target for a semifinal ticket for the Olympic tournament.

(Xinhua News? Agency? August 18, 2004)?