Depleted Qantas U23's go down to China
A severely depleted Qantas Under 23s side have lost 2-0 to China Under 23s in the opening match of the Lunar New Year Cup played in Hong Kong overnight.
A severely depleted Qantas Under 23s side have lost 2-0 to China Under 23s in the opening match of the Lunar New Year Cup played in Hong Kong overnight.
The Australian side were without six players involved in yesterday-s Hyundai A-League Grand Final in Melbourne Victory-s Adrian Leijer, Kristian Sarkies, Leigh Broxham and Vince Lia, as well as Adelaide United duo Bruce Djite and Nathan Burns. Also unavailable through injury were captain Mark Milligan and key midfielder Stuart Musialik while defender Ben Griffin was also not used due to illness.
China opened the scoring seven minutes into the match courtesy of an own goal from Robert Cornthwaite who deflected a cross into his own net from close range.
Australia-s best opportunity to score came mid-way through the first half with defender Nikolai Topor-Stanley hitting a fierce free-kick from outside the penalty area which forced a great save from the Chinese goalkeeper.
A near full-strength China had the best of the second half and scored their second goal three minutes from full time through a superb long-range shot from Jiang Ning.
China will now meet Jamaica in Wednesday-s final having beaten a Hong Kong League XI 5-3 on penalties after the match finished in a 1-1 draw.
Australia will take on the Hong Kong League XI in the early match on Wednesday.
Following Wednesday-s match the Qantas Under 23s will travel to Dubai where they will remain in camp preparing for their opening second round Olympic qualifying match in Tehran on February 28.
Australia have been grouped alongside Iran, Saudi Arabia and Jordan with all of Australia-s second round Group D home matches to be played at Adelaide-s Hindmarsh Stadium during March and May.
Australia defeated Chinese Taipei 12-0 on aggregate earlier this month to qualify for the second qualifying stage.
The 24-team second round qualifying, which has been split into six groups of four, runs through February 28 to June 6, with the top two teams in each group advancing to the final round to be played in three groups of four teams each.
The final home and away round will be held from August 22 - November 21, with the three group winners representing Asia at the Beijing Olympic Games.
Match Details:
Australia 0 China 2 (Cornthwaite 7- O.G., Jiang Ning 87-)
Australian line-up: Danny Vukovic (gk); Ruben Zadkovich, Robert Cornthwaite, Steven O-Dor (c), Nikolai Topor-Stanley, Troy Hearfield, Dario Vidosic, Spase Dilevski, Adam D-Apuzzo, Mark Bridge (Sebastian Ryall 65-), Jason Naidovski Substitutes Not Used: Tando Velaphi (gk), Ben Kennedy (gk)
Cautions: O-Dor 10, Dilevski 29-, Topor-Stanley 42-, Ryall 80-