After falling short in their last match against South Korea, veteran Chinese head coach Gao Hongbo has expressed confidence in his team on Monday, touting their ability to beat Iran in their upcoming 2018 FIFA World Cup Asian Zone qualification match on Tuesday in China.

According to Xinhua, this round has 12 top Asian teams vying for four-and-a-half berths. Along with South Korea, Uzbekistan, Iran, Qatar, and Syria, China belongs to the Group A, while United Arab Emirates, Australia, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Thailand, and Japan are in Group B.

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The top two squads of each group would qualify for the much awaited World Cup finals directly. The third-placed teams of each group would play a home-and-away series, and the winner would qualify for the intercontinental play-off against a team from the CONCACAF.

During the first game of this round on Sept. 1, China lost to South Korea 3-2 in Seoul while the Iranians defeated the visiting Qatari team in Tehran in an impressive 2-0 victory.

In a pre-match press conference, Gao, 50, spoke highly of the Chinese fans in Seoul and stressed that winning the match was his main goal.

"The fans gave our players courage when we got into troubles in the first match against South Korea," Gao said. "To win the game is the only target to every coach, and that is the core value of my work."

In 2002, China reached its only World Cup appearance and has its sight on hosting and even winning the event.

TagsGao Hongbo, Chinese Football Association, Chinese Super League, 2018 FIFA World Cup, FIFA World rankings, fifa