China beat Britain 2-0 Thursday night in a Group A match delayed by a sudden rainstorm to book their ticket in the quarter-finals of the 21st University Games men's soccer competition.
Wang Xinxin opened the scoring for China before more than 10,000 home fans by tapping in the shoot-pass from Wang Sheng in the 60th minute.
Wang had a chance to make his own mark soon after but he put it wide of the post with only the British goalkeeper to beat.
In the 77th minute, Cao Yang came off the bench to score the winner. He broke through the British defense with a solo run and defeat the goalkeeper with a close-range slap shot.
"Thank all my players for their efforts throughout the game," said Chinese head coach Sun Chengyao after their first appearance at the Universiade. They were awarded a 3-0 victory over Nigeria for the latter's late arrival.
"I am happy that the players did what exactly I told them to do," Sun added.
"Naturally we are disappointed with the results but we played very well," British coach Graeme Dell said.
"What we need to do is to ensure that we improve our performance when we face Nigeria in two days' time. With a success we could still get through out of the group."
The first half of the match, which saw the British goalkeeper making couples of brilliant saves, was delayed for more than 25 minutes due to a sudden rainstorm.
(Xinhua News Agency 08/24/2001)
