Netherlands beat 10-man China 2-0 at the Workers Stadium in Beijing on Tuesday night, with the hosts playing 77 minutes of the encounter with a man short. Below, takes a look at the performances of China’s starting lineup:
Zeng Cheng: 8 – Without doubt China’s best performer on the night, goalkeeper Zeng Cheng continued his excellent season with a fine display between the posts for his country. A fine save one-on-one with Jeremain Lens and a near-post reaction save from Arjen Robben were highlights. Should have held off Wang Dalei’s claims to the shirt for a while longer.
Zhang Linpeng: 6 – Had it not been for a poor decision to slide in on Robben and concede a penalty in the opening minutes, this rating could have been higher. From then on, the Evergrande right-back generally dealt well with Robben and even pushed forward to decent effect in the first-half. Spent the second half moving positions as substitutions were made.
Feng Xiaoting: 7 – China’s best defender once more, Feng was generally assured in his defensive work and made a couple of important blocks to deny Robben and Robin van Persie. Camacho needs to find him a regular partner.
Li Xuepeng: 5 – A tough night for the Aerbin defender who continued his indifferent form of club level. An unnecessary yellow card for shirt pulling was followed by a mistimed tackle on De Jong that could easily have brought a red card. Struggled to deal with Van Persie throughout.
Sun Xiang: 6 – The former PSV Eindhoven full-back was tidy with his distribution, and generally solid in defence. Could, though, have done better with his set piece delivery.
Qin Sheng: N/A – What can be said about Qin’s performance? A frankly ridiculous tackle left De Guzman on the floor and Qin heading for the dressing room after just 13 minutes. His claims to a place in the team were already questionable and surely just took a turn for the worse.
Zhao Xuri: 7 – A good showing from the combative midfielder, who answered some of those critical of his selection. Zhao showed composure with the ball at his feet and was consistently good in his defensive work. Should have secured his place in coming squads.
Zheng Zhi: 6 – A decent display from the experienced midfielder, who could have got himself on the scoresheet with a difficult header in the first-half. Was generally neat and tidy about his work around the pitch.
Sun Ke: 6 – The Jiangsu winger enjoyed a bright start and provided a fine outside of the boot cross to set up Zheng Zhi for his headed effort at goal. Faded later on, but showed moments in the first-half to justify his selection.
Yu Hai: 5 – An underwhelming performance from the Guizhou left-winger who was sloppy in his final ball early on. Yu worked hard defensively with the team down to 10-men, but rarely made any profound influence on the game.
Gao Lin: 7 – A good outing from the Evergrande striker, who worked hard for 70 minutes with little support. Gao showed ability at holding the ball up and was involved in all China’s best attacking moves before being replaced.
