AS Roma defender Saud Abdulhamid was one of three changes Mancini made to the Saudi side that drew 1-1 with Indonesia in Jeddah on Thursday while Ivankovic brought Fei Nanduo into his starting line-up as he replaced four of the side hammered 7-0 by Japan.

It was from the Brazil-born winger’s corner that China PR took the lead, Fei Nanduo swinging the ball into the six yard box towards Jiang Shenglong only for the ball to fly past Mohammed Al Owais off the shoulder of Lajami.

Within four minutes the visitors’ hopes suffered a second blow when Kanno was dismissed after referee Nasrullo Kabirov consulted the pitchside monitor and sent off the Al Hilal midfielder for kicking out at Jiang while on the ground, striking the defender in the chest.

Despite being a man down the Saudis attempted to stage a comeback with Salem Al Dawsari dragging his attempt wide just before the half hour mark and, with five minutes left in the half, the three-times AFC Asian Cup winners were level.

Nasser Al Dawsari delivered his out-swinging corner from the left towards the edge of the six-yard box and Kadish emerged unmarked to power his header beyond the helpless Wang Dalei.

Baihelamu Abuduwaili steered Wu Lei’s cross from the left back across the face of goal as the Chinese sought to regain the lead while Wu clipped the crossbar as he redirected Zhu Chenjie’s header across the face of the Saudi goal in first half injury time.

Wang Shangyuan thought he had put the hosts back in front eight minutes into the second half with a close range header but the substitute was in an offside position as Wu Lei headed Li Lei’s corner back across goal.

Salem Al Dawsari then rattled the crossbar at the other end while the towering Jiang remained a threat in the Saudi penalty area at set-pieces but, with only seconds left, Kadish rose to power his header beyond Wang and end China’s resistance.