Tue, 30 Nov, -0001
Dammam: Naif Hazazi stepped off the bench to net the second-half winner as three-time champions Saudi Arabia made the ideal start to the qualifying campaign for the 2015 AFC Asian Cup with a 2-1 win over China at Prince Mohammed bin Fahad Stadium on Wednesday.
Fahad Al Muwallad had opened the scoring for Saudi Arabia midway through the first half only for Zhao Xuri to pull China level before the break.
But after replacing Nassir Al Shamrani just after the hour mark, Hazazi turned home a cross from Al Ittihad teammate Al Muwallad to hand Saudi Arabia all three points in the Group C opener.
"I'm so happy with the result. We won the match and I'm so glad that the players fought until the end of the game and they made all the fans who attended the game very pleased with the performance and result," said Saudi Arabia coach Juan Ramon Lopez Caro.
"I would like to congratulate the players for their performance as they worked very well and they did a great job as a team and also on the individual level.
"The match was hard for the two teams who were disciplined and they tried their best to win the match. We tried our best to control the game and create scoring chances and we managed to score and win the match."
China goalkeeper Zeng Cheng had to be on his toes after just five minutes to deny Taisser Jassam as Saudi Arabia took the game to the visitors.
And midway through the first half Saudi Arabia took the lead as Al Muwallad raced onto Mustafa Al Bassas' slide rule pass in behind the China defence before sliding the ball past the advancing Zeng from inside the six yard area.
China almost found an instant response just two minutes later as a throw-in was only partially cleared and Zhao's vicious first time strike from the edge of the penalty area came back off the crossbar with Saudi Arabia goalkeeper Waleed Abdullah beaten.
But Zhao was not to be denied just four minutes later as the Guangzhou Evergrande midfielder opted for placement over power on this occasion and calmly slotted home past Abdullah after being picked out on the edge of the area by Yu Hanchao.
With neither side able to assert themselves on a tight second half, Saudi Arabia coach Juan Ramon Lopez Caro introduced Hazazi just after the hour mark.
And the Al Ittihad striker took just 12 minutes to make an impact as Hazazi muscled his way onto the end of Al Muwallad's inviting delivery before guiding the ball into the far corner.
China pressed for a second equaliser in the closing stages with both Gao Lin and Yang Xu going close, but Saudi Arabia survived to claim all three points.
"We came to Saudi Arabia and we were hoping to get the three points, but unfortunately we were unlucky. We tried our best to win the match but we made some mistakes and we couldn't create chances to score goals like Saudi Arabia did," said China coach Jose Antonio Camacho.
"In the second half we also made some mistakes and we tried our best to avoid such mistakes. The players gave their best but things didn't go our way."