Victory over Chinese Taipei put China PR within touching distance of a quarter-final berth but head coach Hu Jie wants his side to remain grounded.

“The opponents raised their level in the second half and we reacted too slowly and conceded. However, the players then were able to control the game more and we were able to get the win,” said Hu. “We learned a lot from this game and now that we have two wins in a row, we have (almost) achieved our objective of qualifying to the next round.

“This win is a confidence booster and has taught us how to handle different in-game scenarios and is something that we can learn from. We still have one match left and all we can do now is to focus on preparing for that.”

Uzbekistan will look to their win against Australia for inspiration when they face China PR with head coach Farrukh Zakirov believing that his side can show the same adaptability.

“We studied how Australia played and succeeded to show some improvements in the second half and our plan to disrupt their scorers was key to winning the game,” said Zakirov. I have to praise our goalkeeper (Angelina Polyshkevich) for making plenty of saves.

“China PR are playing at home and they will have the advantage but that will not stop us from fighting for the win. We had some missed chances against Australia, especially from distance, and our players who are still making the adjustments to futsal will surely put in a better performance on Saturday.”

Venue: Hohhot Sports Centre, Hohhot

Kick-off: Saturday, 20:00 (UTC+8)

A jittery start against China PR left Chinese Taipei searching for answers and despite taking too long to find their footing, head coach Hsieh Li-Chuan sees a silver lining in the experience.

“We were overwhelmed with playing in front of China PR fans. Our players were nervous dealing with this kind of atmosphere,” said Hsieh. “We entered the game too late psychologically, but we still have one game left to play and this match can be a good lesson for us to prepare for it."

“Failure is not a difficult thing; you just have to believe in yourself, that you can always do better. That is what we always tell the players.

“Winning is not everything – what’s important is for my players to always believe in themselves, the tactics and strategies we have developed and we will see how it goes.”

Having suffered two consecutive defeats, Australia face a challenging task to keep their slim hopes of reaching the knockout stage alive, with head coach Miles Downey saying that his charges will need to recover emotionally ahead of their match against the East Asians.

“I thought we dominated the game and Uzbekistan struggled under our pressure. But the longer the game went on, the better they got,” said Downey. “We had our chances in transitions and didn’t convert them. We left ourselves exposed going forward and Uzbekistan were threatening from set-pieces and in transition."

“You don’t need to keep possession to win games. The biggest challenge for us will be getting over this defeat emotionally and coming back stronger to do our best against Chinese Taipei.”

Venue: Hohhot Sports Centre, Hohhot

Kick-off: Saturday, 17:00 (UTC+8)