China’s quest to get among the superpowers of Asian football came up short in the last FIFA World Cup qualifying campaign as they finished 5th to Iran, Uzbekistan, South Korea, and Syria. They did, however, manage to show some good form in the latter stages of that qualifying campaign with wins over Uzbekistan and South Korea, but they still have a long way to go in terms of getting among the big boys of Asian and world football.
They are without a win since their last world cup qualifier against Qatar, in that time they have drawn against North Korea and South Korea, lost to Colombia, Serbia and Japan, they would be looking to frustrate Ryan Giggs’ Wales as he makes his managerial debut here.
Wales were the surprise package of Euro 2016 as they reached the semifinal when other bigger nations like England failed to even get beyond the group stage. However, they could not follow that achievement with a world cup qualification and this led to Chris Coleman resigning to take charge of Sunderland. They lost just one game in the world cup qualifying series but drew five of their opening six games. They lost their first post-world cup qualifying friendly to France, before drawing with Panama ahead of this game.
