China Admits Tough Challenge in Match Against Indonesia

TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - The Chinese national team coach, Branko Ivankovic, realizes that the away match against the Indonesian national team in the ninth round of the 2026 World Cup Qualifiers in the Asian zone on Thursday, June 5, 2025, will be difficult. The two teams will compete at the Gelora Bung Karno Main Stadium, Senayan, Jakarta, with a scheduled kick-off at 20:45 local time.

China will face the home team, which receives extraordinary support from about 70,000 fans who provide their tremendous support. "This will be a tense match for us. However, I have told my players to use the pressure as motivation," he said in a press conference before the match at GBK on Wednesday, June 4, 2025.

Ivankovic also mentioned the composition of the Indonesian players. "Now, we know that Indonesia has new immigrant players for this match. We clearly understand all the difficulties involved," he added.

Therefore, the Chinese national team coach wants his players to concentrate more on the match and forget other factors to strive for the best result. He hopes his players can perform at their best. "We know this is a very competitive group. Japan, Australia, and Saudi Arabia are in this group. Congratulations to Japan on qualifying for the World Cup. The other teams in this group also have the opportunity to advance to the next stage of the qualifiers," Ivankovic said.

The current Indonesian national team, under the guidance of Patrick Kluivert, has shown a competitive attitude by striving for many things during the qualifying process. "This will be a very important match for both of us. As we said before, we hope every team in this group gets lucky so we can all advance to the next round," he said.

Meanwhile, the striker of the Chinese national team, Zhang Yuning, said that their team's preparations are not much different from previous matches, even though this match is predicted to be difficult. "We will fight as hard as we can until the very end to achieve the best possible results," he said.

He said that, as a striker, his main goal is not just to score goals to win for the Chinese national team. "All of the players on the Chinese national team have the ability to determine the outcome of the match. As I said earlier, we will give our all in this match to achieve results," Yuning said.

The Chinese national team is at the bottom of Group C's standings with six points, trailing three points behind Indonesia, which is in fourth place. To maintain the chance of qualifying for the playoffs, the Dragons must win the last two matches of the third round of the 2026 World Cup Qualifiers in the Asian zone. After this, they will face Bahrain at home next Tuesday, June 10.

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