BEIJING, April 13 (Xinhua) -- Former Chinese team skipper Fan Zhiyi has expressed his confidence in head coach Li Tie's ability to guide China to play beautiful football in the World Cup qualifiers.
Fan, who captained China in the 2002 World Cup finals, said he watched some of his former teammate's training sessions and was impressed by his approach to his job.
"He is a down-to-earth person and is preparing for the World Cup qualifying games step by step. He is doing his job with great attention to detail. With what he has done with the team, I can say they will be able to play beautiful football," Fan said.
The 51-year-old former Crystal Palace defender said he could conceive the pressure Li is under.
"He cannot afford to lose one match during the upcoming World Cup qualifiers. What a pressure!" he said.
China will host all remaining Asian Group A matches from May 30 to June 15 in Suzhou.
Li is expected to have a rough ride as his side, which will face Guam, the Philippines, the Maldives and Syria in succession in the World Cup qualifiers, did not play any competitive games after taking over the team in January of 2019.
China is currently eight points adrift of group leaders Syria and only leads the Philippines, which is in third place on goal difference. Enditem
