China began the return fixture on the frontfoot and almost found the breakthrough in the 20th minute when Gao Zhunyi’s header back across the goal found Zhang Yuning who ballooned his shot over from point blank range. 

 

But Zhang Yuning redeemed himself by creating China’s opener the very next minute as he collected a header from Wu Lei in the middle of the park and fed the ball back to the captain who raced past the Singapore defence and dinked the ball over veteran goalkeeper Hassan Sunny to make it 1-0 to the hosts. 

Singapore’s reply, however, was swift as Hariss Harun’s long ball forward straight from the restart found Ryhan Stewart who floated in a cross from the right that was headed home at the far post by Faris – the visitors’ first shot of the match restoring parity. 

 

Apart from the equaliser, it was one-way traffic when it came to chances created in the first half as China pushed to reclaim the lead before the break, but were denied by 39-year-old Hassan who made an impressive stop from Gao Zhunyi in the 45th minute. 

The turning point of the contest came in the 65th minute as the referee pointed to the spot after a foul by Mahler on Gao Zhunyi inside the box and Fei Nanduo sent Hassan the wrong way from 12 yards out to restore the one-goal advantage for the home side. 

 

A red card to Li Yuanyi meant China played the final 10 minutes, but Tsutomu Ogura’s side failed to capitalise as Ikhsan Fandi’s header flew inches over the goal in the 82nd minute. 

That miss would come back to haunt the visiting side as Wu Lei claimed his second of the night three minutes later before substitute Wei Shihao’s 90th-minute effort put the result beyond doubt for 10-man China. 

 

China will welcome Thailand in their next outing when the qualification campaign resumes in June while Singapore, who are yet to taste a victory in the second round, host group toppers Korea Republic.