XIAN, China: Hosts China on Tuesday relied on two second-half goals to
beat Qatar 2-0 in the final match of the 2018 FIFA World Cup
qualifying campaign in Group C.

Backed by a vociferous crowd at Shaanxi Province Stadium, striker
Huang Bowen opened the scoring for China in the 57th minute after both
teams failed to score in the first half.

Four minutes from time, Wu Lei doubled the lead for the home team with
an easy goal.

By virtue of this win, China sneak past Hong Kong in the points table.

China have 17 points from eight matches while Qatar remain at the top
of Group C with 21 points.

Hong Kong, who lost to Qatar last week, are in third place with 14
points from eight matches.

Tuesday’s loss was Qatar’s first under coach Daniel Carreno who
started ‘Al Anabi’s’ qualifying campaign last year in June.

After an enterprising first half, Carreno gave a run to Akram Afif
(63), Karim Boudiaf (63) and Mohammed Muntari (75).

Qatar arrived in China with an unbeaten streak that lasted seven wins
on the run.

Carreno’s team boys will now wait for the draw of the next stage to be
announced in April.

Qatar will resume training at the end of May when they playa friendly
against Albania.

Qatar line-up: Amine Lecomte (GK), Mohammed Musa, Abdulrahman

Mohammed, Abdulaziz Hatem, Khalid Muftah, Luiz Martin, Rodrigo

Tabata, Meshal Abdullah ©, Ahmed Al Sayed, Pedro Correira and

Ismaiel Mohammed

Substitutes: Karim Boudiaf, Akram Afif and Mohammed Muntari

China line-up: Zheng C(GK), Ren Hang, Li X.P, Feng X.T ©, Wu Lei,

Zhang Xizhe, Hao Junmin, Zhao Mingjian, Huang Bowen, Jiang

Ning

Substitutes: Yu Dabao, Yu Hai and Cai Huikang