"We're happy today. We had to score from the opportunities we had to avoid being under pressure like we did at the end of the match. However, this victory is important after missing out (on victories) for a long period of time in the qualifiers,” said Renard.

"Today we could have been more effective and we need to improve on that and take advantage of our opportunities in the upcoming matches. We haven’t scored many goals and there's a big difference between us and Australia in terms of goal difference."

The match turned in Saudi Arabia’s favour just before halftime when China PR’s Lin Liangmin was sent off for a reckless challenge on Hassan Al Tambakti.

"There wasn't pressure on us because of Australia's victory, but rather pressure from our position and our need to win every match. We now face Japan and Bahrain before playing Australia.

"We had good possession from the start but after scoring the goal, the Chinese team defended and we were unable to penetrate their lines. I think if we'd scored the second goal, we could have increased our lead.”

While the win means Saudi Arabia are likely to scrape it out with Australia for the second automatic qualifying spot, defeat left China PR rooted at the bottom of the standings with six points with head coach Branko Ivankovic conceding that his side were second best at the King Saud University Stadium. 

"I congratulate Saudi Arabia on the victory. We could see that they were the better team in the second half. We didn't come here without any idea or target. We came here with ambitions to gain something from this match.

"We can say that the Saudi team is a very cohesive team. We played with one player less and they have very good technical players, so they made the match more difficult for us,” said Ivankovic, whose side must beat Australia on Tuesday if they are to keep their hopes of securing a playoff spot alive.