CHINA head coach Aleksandar Jankovic vowed to keep his team moving forward after the 3-0 home loss to South Korea in the 2026 FIFA World Cup Asian Zone qualifying tournament second stage in Shenzhen on Tuesday.

“The supporters in Shenzhen gave us warm welcome, and I feel sorry that we couldn’t offer three points to them tonight. The South Korean team played a good game, punishing us on every small mistake we made. I say congratulations to them, and we will see each other later [in the next faceoff],” Jankovic told the post-match press conference.

“Losing 3-0 is always painful, but I can be sure we will take the right conclusion from the game and keep moving forward. We had some combination play tonight, which is very useful for our future games, especially in terms of keeping possession under high pressure,” Jankovic noted.

In the second stage of the Asian qualifying tournament, 36 teams have been divided into nine groups competing in a home-and-away round-robin format. The top two of each group will advance to the third stage.

In the Group C openers last week, China rallied to beat Thailand 2-1 in Bangkok and South Korea thrashed Singapore 5-0 at home. (Xinhua)