Despite some key absences from the squad, the China National Team must claim valuable points in their hunt for a World Cup berth in 2026.
The China National Team has not featured in a World Cup since 2002 and their desperate hunt to get there again goes through Australia and Indonesia this time around.
Team Dragon narrowly made it into Round 3 of the 2026 World Cup Qualifiers, but things have gone poorly since then — highlighted by their 7–0 loss to Japan last month.
No points in their opening two fixtures have seen them plummet to the bottom of the group, seeing them join Oman and Kyrgyzstan as the only teams out of the three Asian Qualifying groups to sit at zero points so far.
With Australia and Indonesia their next opponents in this phase of international fixtures, a daunting task awaits as they desperately search for enough points to sneak into the Fourth Round of qualifying — with the automatic spots clearly out of reach already.
Out of six teams in each group, the teams ranked 3rd and 4th will progress to the next round of qualifiers while the bottom two of each group see their qualifying campaigns end.
Right now, before taking on Australia and Indonesia, the two teams sitting directly above them in the group, China sits 2 points outside of 4th place — meaning that their hopes of securing a place in the next round is not completely out of the realms of possibility.
However, it will be a difficult task for a team that has scored just one goal in their last three competitive fixtures, conceding 10 in that time, while having just one win (4–1 vs Singapore) out of their last 12 games.
Things are even more difficult for National Team head coach Branko Ivanković, who will be without the top goal scorer in the Chinese Super League — Wu Lei — as well as in-form striker A Lan, with both withdrawing from the squad due to injuries.
China’s attacking options include Zhang Yuning, Fei Nanduo, Wei Shihao, Lin Liangming and Behram Abduweli — with Zhang having the best international record with six goals in 34 caps.
Lacking firepower already, the losses of Wu Lei and A Lan will likely be on display in these next two fixtures, but the team somehow has to find a way to at least claim a point over these next two matches.
A draw, more probably against Indonesia although still a tough ask, would at least give the team hope of building and claiming more points along the road as this round of qualifying continues into next summer.
It’s hard for fans to feel excited about the National Team and their chances of playing in the 2026 World Cup, but small incremental improvements over this qualifying round could help their case — at the very least allowing them to fight another day in the next round.
Two more rounds of qualifying remain, meaning they have even more opportunities to stake a claim on one of the AFC’s allotment for the tournament, which could potentially revitalise the country’s ailing support for football internationally.
Australia and Indonesia are up next, and a point is an absolute minimum required.