Guam vs China World Cup Qualification LIVE Football Score 30 May 2021

 

Event details:
NAME: Guam – China
DATE: 30 May 2021
TIME: 16:30 UTC
LEAGUE: World Cup Qualification, AFC, Round 2, Gr. A.

China resume their qualifying for the 2022 FIFA World Cup against Guam at the Suzhou Olympic Sports Centre in Jiangsu on Sunday. With seven points from five games so far, Li Tie’s side are second in Group A behind Syria, but level on points with the Philippines with a game in hand. The Dragons started the qualifying phase with a bang, beating Maldives 5-0 in the opener followed by a 7-0 shellacking of their weekend rivals. However, a draw and a loss in the next two games punctured some of the early momentum. They’ll be hoping to get back to winning ways against a side rooted at the foot of the group standings without a single point, having lost all five of their matches.

Guam will be massive underdogs and anything other than a Chinese victory in front of a sell-out crowd of about 30,000 in Suzhou would be a shock. But Guam have done something similar before. In 2015 they stunned India — which has the second-biggest population after China — in World Cup qualifying. It did not bring them a maiden World Cup appearance, but it lifted Asian football’s smallest member association to 146th in the FIFA rankings. Guam are now 198th of 210 teams. Underlining the scale of the task against China, Guam’s comparatively miniscule population means the national side only has about 50 players to choose from, Guam Football Association president Valentino San Gil told AFP by telephone.

China were expected to finish top of Group A and automatically advance through to the third round of qualifying, but they have their work cut out if they are to achieve that aim. A 5-0 win over the Maldives and a 7-0 thrashing of Guam in the reverse fixture saw Li’s side get off to a perfect start from their opening two games. However, they drew 0-0 with the Philippines and lost 2-1 to Syria in their last batch of qualifying fixtures some 19 months ago and now trail the latter by eight points. China do still have a game in hand on Syria, however, and the two sides are set to face off again next month, so top spot is not completely out of the question for Li’s charges.