Group B: Saudi Arabia 0-1 China

AFC Asian Cup – BRISBANE, China joined Uzbekistan at the top of Group B of the AFC Asian Cup Australia 2015 with a hard-fought 1-0 win over Saudi Arabia at Brisbane Stadium on Saturday.

A late and somewhat fortunate free-kick by Yu Hai proved to be the lone goal of the match as Saudi Arabia paid the price for Naif Hazazi’s missed second-half penalty against Alain Perrin’s side.

Both China, who are looking to return to the quarter-finals for the first time since hosting the competition in 2004, and Saudi Arabia failed to qualify for the knockout phase at Qatar 2011.

Three-time champions Saudi Arabia enjoyed the better moments early on with their technique-oriented game, seeing more time on the ball and pushing China deep into their own half.

The Green Falcons, however, failed to translate possession into opportunities and could not produce a single shot on target before the intermission.

China, on the other hand, didn’t exactly dazzle in attack but held firm at the back and created the closest chance of the first half when in the 43rd minute, Wu Xi ran through midfield before firing narrowly wide of the left-hand post from the edge of the box.

The second half opened gingerly before Saudi Arabia kicked it into a higher gear on the hour mark, Hazazi breaking free down the inside left channel to win a penalty off defender Ren Hang who tackled one step too late.

Ren, nevertheless, was bailed out by his keeper Wang Dalei who read Hazazi well from the spot, diving to his left to deny the Saudis the lead as the Chinese half of the crowd at Brisbane Stadium erupted in joy.

China nearly stung Saudi Arabia right away at the opposite end, Ren forcing a two-handed stop from Waleed Abdullah with a close-range header towards the bottom right corner of the net.

The deadlock was finally broken after 80 minutes when Yu’s free kick, from outside the box, took a wicked deflection off a defender to wrong-foot Abdullah who, despite a desperate attempt to keep the Guizhou Renhe midfielder’s effort out, saw the ball skip into his net.

In the earlier Group B encounter Uzbekistan beat DPR Korea 1-0.