Portugal struggle past China in friendly

(GSM) – Portugal earned a hard-fought 2-0 win over China PR in an international friendly played on Wednesday.

The city of Coimbra was the venue for the match, in which Portugal drew first blood through Hugo Almeida after 37 minutes.

The rather fruitless encounter never truly came to life, although Portugal did add a second goal four minutes into injury time as a Liedson strike was deflected by a defender.

The Portuguese face a tough challenge in South Africa, next June, as they share Group G with Cote d’Ivoire, Korea DPR and Brazil.

China did not qualify for the World Cup finals.