Chicken Lovers

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia — There was good news and bad news for China in its quest to qualify for the 2018 World Cup in Russia.

China kept its hopes alive Thursday night with a 4-0 victory over Maldives in the second Asian qualification round for the Cup to finally move above Hong Kong into second place in Group C with a crucial game coming in Xi’an, China, Tuesday against Qatar, the group leader.

But the bad news is that even a win over Qatar may not be enough to prevent China from crashing out of qualification at the penultimate stage for the fourth successive time. The country will have to get help from others to have a chance.

Chinese soccer fans are accustomed to their team’s letting them down when the pressure is on. But the result Thursday in Wuhan was never in doubt from the second minute after Jiang Ning headed in Wu Lei’s cross for his first international goal in seven years. The striker completed a hat-trick with two late goals. Yang Xu scored in the 12th minute.

This was the first game back in charge for interim coach Gao Hongbo, who was appointed for a second stint in February to replace the Frenchman Alain Perrin, who was fired in January after indifferent results.

“We did the minimum of what we had to do and merely passed the test tonight,” Gao told reporters after the game. “We had 40 shots, but only scored four goals. Of course, I am satisfied, but it’s not like we were playing against a strong team, and we still have more work to do.”

The desperation to score more goals was clear. Defeating Maldives, No.158 on FIFA’s world rankings, 62 places below China, is only a first step.

“I am proud to score a hat-trick for my country,” said Jiang after the game. “We should have scored more, as goal difference could prove to be crucial and our goal difference is not high. We now need to focus on the next game with Qatar.”

Asia has four automatic slots at the World Cup. Of the 40 Asian nations that started the second round of qualification, 12 will progress to the final round, the eight group winners and the four best runner-up teams.

Two goalless ties against Hong Kong, played in a politically charged atmosphere in which China hit the woodwork a total of eight times, mean China has no chance to overtake Qatar, which has won all seven of its games so far.

Anything less than a win in Xi’an will eliminate China, and the 2002 World Cup, with three defeats and no goals scored, would remain its only appearance on the world’s biggest sporting stage.

If China can beat Qatar, which may lack motivation, it will look to results elsewhere to claim one of the four spots for runners-up. With one game remaining, China is sixth in the list of the eight second-placed teams.

In order for China to climb into the last four, two of the five teams above it have to slip up. Syria is already out of reach. North Korea, Iraq and United Arab Emirates are expected to get the results they need. Jordan offers the best bet and faces a tough trip to Sydney to face the Asian champion, Australia.

China is hoping that, as it did against Hong Kong, something unexpected happens. “We are not thinking about that,” said Gao. “We now move forward to the Qatar game, and we will focus on that. We know what we have to do.”

Elimination from the 2018 World Cup at a time when some continents have not even started qualifying rounds may be a familiar feeling for Chinese fans but would be especially painful this time.

The Chinese Super League has become the most talked about domestic tournament outside Europe thanks to some $300 million clubs recently spent on foreign stars like the Brazilians Alex Teixeira and Ramires and the Colombian Jackson Martínez.

Guangzhou Evergrande, under World Cup-winning managers Marcello Lippi in 2013 and Luiz Felipe Scolari in 2015, have lifted two out of the last three Asian Champions League trophies. At club level, China now competes with the best of Asia, but the national team may have to wait a little longer.

There is some pressure for China to produce results on the world stage.President Xi Jinping, himself a soccer fan, personally presided over a meeting last year aimed at restructuring the country’s soccer infrastructure, and returning to the World Cup is clearly a goal he and the State Council, China’s cabinet, want to see reached.

Coach Gao believes the time will come whatever happens on Tuesday. “The general picture of Chinese football is not bad, especially at club and grassroots levels,” he told FIFA in March. “There is increasing investment by our clubs and as a result, more and more star-players have traveled across the globe to come to play in the Chinese League. Our clubs have won Asian championships and a growing number of talents have been produced. We should be optimistic.”