Asian Cup: Kuwait 0 China 2

A first-half red card proved the turning point as China opened their Asian Cup campaign with a 2-0 win over Kuwait on Saturday.

Second-half strikes from Zhang Linpeng and Deng Zhuoxiang greatly bolstered China’s chances of qualification to the tournament’s quarter-finals, though they had made occasional hard work of the game even after Mesaed Neda had been dismissed by Australian referee Ben Williams for an ill-advised kick on Yang Zu in the 33rd minute.

Kuwait may claim they were unlucky not to go ahead in the game’s early stages, when star striker Bader Al-Mutwa went over in the box after what seemed a clear foul.

Williams disagreed, waving play on despite the protests of the Kuwait players and bench.

China made their first serious foray forward after 20 minutes, with a right-foot volley from experienced striker Qu Bo volley drawing a superb save out of goalkeeper Nawaf Al-Khaldy.

The Kuwait shot-stopper showed his erratic side a minute later when he dropped a harmless-looking ball in the box, but his defence managed to clear before China could pounce.

Hussain Fadhel went close with a free-kick six minutes after team-mate Mesaed was dismissed, but there was no splitting the two teams at half-time.

That changed 14 minutes into the second period, when Zhang’s volley from outside the box took a wicked deflection to fool both Nawaf and his defence and trickled over the line.

Kuwait could have gone down to nine men on 66 minutes, but Williams elected to flash a yellow card instead of a red when Jarah Al-Ataiqi brought down China substitute Hao Junmin as the Schalke midfielder bore down on goal.

But Williams’ decision mattered little as Deng’s superlative left-foot free kick evaded the wall and the goalkeeper to make it 2-0, sealing the three points for China.

The victors join Uzbekistan on three points, with Qatar to come on Wednesday.

Kuwait must upset the Uzbeks the same day if they are to hold out hope of a quarter-final spot of their own.