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South China Morning Post
22-05-2025
- Sport
- South China Morning Post
Winger Wu Lei returns to China squad for crunch Fifa 2026 World Cup qualifiers
Wu Lei looks set to make his first appearance for China in more than eight months after being included in Branko Ivankovic's 27-man squad for next month's World Cup qualifiers against Indonesia and Bahrain on Thursday. The 33-year-old former Espanyol winger, who has scored 36 goals in 99 appearances for his country, last played an international against Saudi Arabia last September before being sidelined by a knee injury. He returned to action for Shanghai Port last month and Ivankovic will hope he can bring a much-needed cutting edge to China's forward line, which has failed to find the net in either of their past two qualifiers. Uncapped midfielder Yang Mingyang was also included in the squad after the former Swiss youth international had his request to change international allegiance approved by Fifa on Monday. China are bottom of Group C and cannot now earn direct passage to the 2026 World Cup finals from the third stage of Asian qualifying. They could, however, still get through to a fourth stage if they can leapfrog Bahrain, who are above them on goal difference, and Indonesia, who stand three points ahead, after the final round of qualifiers.
Reuters
22-05-2025
- Sport
- Reuters
Wu Lei returns to China squad for crunch World Cup qualifiers
BEIJING, May 22 (Reuters) - Wu Lei looks set to make his first appearance for China in more than eight months after being included in Branko Ivankovic's 27-man squad for next month's World Cup qualifiers against Indonesia and Bahrain on Thursday. The 33-year-old former Espanyol winger, who has scored 36 goals in 99 appearances for his country, last played an international against Saudi Arabia last September before being sidelined by a knee injury. He returned to action for Shanghai Port last month and Ivankovic will hope he can bring a much-needed cutting edge to China's forward line, which has failed to find the net in either of their last two qualifiers. Uncapped midfielder Yang Mingyang was also included in the squad after the former Swiss youth international had his request to change international allegiance approved by FIFA on Monday. China are bottom of Group C and cannot now earn direct passage to the 2026 World Cup finals from the third stage of Asian qualifying. They could, however, still get through to a fourth stage if they can leapfrog Bahrain, who are above them on goal difference, and Indonesia, who stand three points ahead, after the final round of qualifiers. China, who have qualified only once for the World Cup in 2002, travel to Jakarta to play the Indonesians on June 5 before hosting Bahrain in Chongqing five days later.
