AFC Asian Qualifiers
The Chinese have not qualified for the FIFA World Cup Finals since making their debut appearance in Japan and Korea Republic in 2002 and Ivankovic’s side have been handed a tough task after being drawn against Japan, Australia, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain and Indonesia.
But after turning the nation’s qualifying campaign around in their last four matches in the second phase when he replaced Aleksandar Jankovic as coach in February, the experienced Croatian is confident his team can make an impact along the road to the Finals.
“I’m sure my players will do their best for the country, for their families and for the people to be part of a big competition with the other teams,” said Ivankovic, who led the Islamic Republic of Iran to the FIFA World Cup Finals in Germany in 2006.
“When I came to China we made a short-term plan, a middle-term plan and a long-term plan and this is a middle-term plan in this case, we changed a lot of players in the team in the last three months."
“Twelve players are new in the team and we will try to find, also, two or three players that we know can participate in the national team.
“We will try to make a team with a modern style of playing and to start in any game with full optimism and full self-confidence because we don’t have anything to lose.”
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China PR open their campaign with a demanding away trip against Japan on September 5 before hosting Saudi Arabia five days later in a challenging start to their quest for a FIFA World Cup ticket.
But Ivankovic stressed none of the five teams his side will face in the group can be underestimated.
“It is a tough draw for us, it’s the toughest group compared to A and B group but this is something we expected because we were in the fifth pot,” he said. “We know we can’t find a weak team because in these 18 teams there is no weak team.
“If you ask me what I want, I want 30 points but of course this is football and we will try really to start in any game with optimism and full of self-confidence and with the intent to do something during the game."
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“It doesn’t matter if it’s Japan, Bahrain or Indonesia because we saw how Indonesia did during the Asian Cup or the qualifying games, or Bahrain.
“I’m not talking about Japan or Australia because they showed during the World Cup how strong they are, and Saudi Arabia were the only team to beat the world champions.
“But I don’t care about this, I’m proud to be coach of China with this team and I expect our players will give a lot of satisfaction to the people in China.”
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