Qatar restore pride with China victory
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![Qatar's goal keeper Qasem Burhan, second right, fights for the ball with China's Zhao Peng during the AFC Asian Cup group A soccer match China against Qatar at Khalifa Stadium, in Doha, Qatar, Wednesday Jan. 12, 2011. [Photo: Associated Press]](http://images.china.cn/attachement/jpg/site1007/20110113/000cf1bdd2450e98a2b905.jpg "Qatar's goal keeper Qasem Burhan, second right, fights for the ball with China's Zhao Peng during the AFC Asian Cup group A soccer match China against Qatar at Khalifa Stadium, in Doha, Qatar, Wednesday Jan. 12, 2011. [Photo: Associated Press]") |
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Qatar's goal keeper Qasem Burhan, second right, fights for the ball with China's Zhao Peng during the AFC Asian Cup group A soccer match China against Qatar at Khalifa Stadium, in Doha, Qatar, Wednesday Jan. 12, 2011. [Photo: CRI via Associated Press] |
Striker Yusef Ahmed's first half brace help hosts Qatar get much-needed three points over China to avoid early exit at the second round game of Group A on Wednesday.
Ahmed, a substitute in Qatar's defeat to Uzbekistan in the curtain-raiser, proved coach Bruno Metsu's trust with fantastic performance. The lively hitman took a nice touch before firing an unstoppable out-spinning volley from the edge of the box in the 27th minute to break the deadlock, and drove home with a nice low shot to beat keeper Zeng Cheng.
China now sit at the second place together with Qatar, and Uzbekistan is on top of Group A with two straight wins. While Kuwait is at the bottom with two defeats.
China coach Gao Hongbo made three changes to the starting eleven from the first group game agaisnt Kuwait. Striker Gao Lin, midfielder Yu Tao and keeper Zeng Cheng were among the starting list. Metsu also made three changes as his Chinese counterpart, he sent on Ahmed, Mohamed El Sayed and Kasola.
Gao's decisions seemed to be wrong as keeper Zeng Cheng reacted slowly to the two goals and Gao Lin was replaced by Yang Xu on 42 minutes. Without injured play maker Fabio Cesar, Metsu's tactics proved to be right as Ahmed was shinning upfront.
The hosts pushed up with fierce attacks since the beginning of the game, and China produced threats by sharp counter-attacking. Deng Zhuoxiang, Gao Lin and Zhao Peng had three great chances in the first half, but ended in bad finishing.
China brought on Shalke 04 midfielder Hao Junmin and Zhou Haibin to strengthen the attacking power, but their opponents created more threats. Sebasitan Soria could have made it 3-0 in the 65 minute, only to find his bullet shot hit the crossbar.
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