China gets a lucky draw

Good luck has favored China en route to the country's second World Cup appearance. After benefiting from a FIFA rule change to become the fifth seed in Asia, China received another boost at the preliminary draw in Rio de Janeiro on Sunday.

China, which avoided early clashes with continental arch-rivals Japan, Republic of Korea, Australia and Iran after the seedings earlier this month, has been grouped with Jordan, Iraq and Singapore in the round-of-20 Asian Zone qualifying round.

The draw will further help China to avoid encounters with equally strong opponents such as Uzbekistan, Qatar and the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK).