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China can beat any team in Asian Cup: Haan
(Xinhua)
Updated: 2004-07-26 10:29
China coach Arie Haan said in Beijing Sunday that the hosts can beat any team
in the quarter-finals of the Asian Cup soccer tournament.
China reached the last eight by beating Qatar 1-0 thanks to Xu Yunlong's
winner in the 78th minute.
The hosts will meet second placer of Group C to vie for a place in the
semifinals. And everyone of the Group C, comprising Iraq, Turkmenistan, Saudi
Arabia and Uzbekistan could be there.
"We are a strong team and we can beat anyone in the quarter-finals," Haan
said. "But we should make 100 percent efforts and need a little bit luck."
The Dutchman felt pleased to qualify from the group but also thought the home
team lucky to score the late goal.
"This is the most difficult game in the three matches," he said. "Qatar is
the last team to play us and they must have studied us carefully in the last two
games. They did a very good job."
He said that the Chinese players were a little carried away by their crushing
victory over Indonesia.
"They lost 5 percent to 10 percent concentration in this match, and
that's the difficulty made by ourselves. "
But Haan finally gave credit to the players and especially to the new starter
Xu and substitutions.
"Some of the players are tired after two matches, so I made some changes in
this match. I said as a team, you need to have good bench players. We had a lot
of good chances and we should have scored more goals.
"But we scored finally and qualified as top finisher of the group. I am very
happy with this."
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