The China Men’s National Football Team’s hopes of qualifying for the 2026 World Cup have been bolstered following their victory over Bahrain.
In their penultimate qualifier of 2024, at the Bahrain National Stadium, China walked away with a vital 1–0 victory courtesy of Zhang Yuning’s 91st-minute tap-in.
China had been largely on the back foot for the match, with less than 30% of possession and almost a quarter of Bahrain’s total passes made, but the first minute of added time saw the visitors secure those all-important points in their desperate pursuit of reaching the 2026 World Cup in North America.
The result sees China sit fourth in their group with six points, having had zero just two matches earlier, tied alongside Australia and Saudi Arabia.
It is an enormous boost to Team Dragon’s World Cup qualifying campaign, with the teams in third and fourth moving into the next round of qualifying — with first and second securing automatic qualification.
Before China faced Indonesia in the last round of qualifying fixtures, it looked as if their hopes of reaching their first World Cup since 2002 were effectively over.
Now, though, they have a genuine opportunity to at least move onto the fourth round of qualifying, with a further fifth round still also a route towards making it.
China are now halfway through Round 3 of qualifying, with one more match against every other team in Group C — starting against Japan in just five days’ time.
Every result will be crucial for Branko Ivanković, but their final two fixtures in June will be the true deciders now that China have put themselves in a positive position results-wise.
They will take on Indonesia and then Bahrain, which will likely be the two teams they compete with to secure their place in the next round of qualifying.
Should they reach Round 4, they will be in one of the groups of three, with one automatic qualifying place up for grabs and second place in the group progressing to the fifth, and final, round — which will be a two-leg fixture against the other group’s second-place finisher.
China now effectively has three opportunities to qualify automatically for the World Cup, whereas the thought of even finishing in the top four of Round 3 was inconceivable just a few short weeks ago.
This result will firmly plant the seed of hope for China and the final five fixtures will be followed far more closely now there is genuine belief that Team Dragon’s wait to reach the top international tournament could finally come to an end in 2026.