The situation in Group C was more or less clear before the third round of the group stage.
Colombia had basically qualified with two straight wins, while Côte d'Ivoire had essentially been eliminated after two straight losses. All that remained was the battle for second place.
China and Greece had both won one and lost one. Under the World Cup group-stage qualification rules, however, Greece had lost 0–3 to Colombia in the first round, leaving them behind China Team on goal difference. As a result, Greece was in a very unfavorable position in the race to advance.
In the final round, Greece had to beat China to qualify.
China, on the other hand, would qualify with a draw.
That should have been extremely good news, but for China—for the Chinese players and fans—it was actually a worrying situation. Over the past several decades, China Team had repeatedly proven one thing: "A draw will be enough to qualify" was tantamount to failure.
In recent years, with the emergence of players like Yang Yang, China Team's overall strength had improved considerably. Yet this nightmare still hung over Chinese football, because it had brought them too many painful nightmares in the past.
More importantly, the Asian teams at this World Cup were as listless as ever.
Australia had lost all three matches and sat at the bottom of their group. But considering that they had been drawn into a group of death with the Netherlands, Chile, and Spain—and even Spain had failed to advance—there was nothing surprising about Australia finishing last.
But Korea and Japan were also at the bottom of their groups, with one draw and two losses apiece, neither having won a single match.
Only China Team had secured a victory, against Côte d'Ivoire. It was also the only victory by