Chinese netizens accept goalless draw with Saudi

Chinese netizens considered their football team's 0-0 draw against Saudi Arabia "acceptable" in an Asian Cup qualifier.

Despite efforts from both sides, the Group C match ended in a goalless draw Tuesday in Xi'an which left China on eight points behind leaders Saudi Arabia with 13. Iraq beat Indonesia 2-0 to stand in third with six points in the other group match, reports Xinhua.

An online survey on Chinese portal Sina.com taken by more than 6000 Internet users showed that over half of them thought the result was "normal". About 30 percent of them reckoned that China had been fighting to the best of their abilities and the 0-0 draw was acceptable.

After five rounds of the group phase, China need at least a draw away at Iraq in the last round to advance, which seems a difficult journey as far as Chinese fans are concerned as 55 percent of the people took a dim view of China's Asian Cup finals prospect.