With a late penalty from Tao Wei, China's national football team struggled to a hard-fought 1-1 draw with Bundesliga side Arminia Bielefeld Sunday in their first warm-up for the upcoming European tour.

Chinese player Zhao Junzhe (L) passes a volley to teammates ahead of the rival's block on Sunday, Jan 14, 2007.

Chinese head coach Zhu Guanghu put rookies in the starting lineup, while Sun Xiang, who just sealed a transfer deal with Dutch powerhouse PSV Eindhoven, was sidelined in the game, transformed into a trilogy to test the newbies.

The Chinese dropped their traditional offensive style featuring simple and fruitless long passes from both wings and instead posed threats to their rivals' goal by managing breakthroughs via ground passes.

The change helped Zhu's side take command in the opening minutes despite no goals made. But the situation turned adverse in the 15th minute when Bielefeld found the net.

The Germans followed to maintain the lead until the third period when the Chinese played all-out in the hunt for an equalizer. The Chinese turned their efforts into a penalty in the 70th minute as Bielefeld's defender committed a handball foul in the box.

Substitute Tao Wei used the chance to level the score for China.

(CRI January 15, 2007)