China's 5-1 hammering of Malaysia raised hopes it was emerging from a long slumber since reaching the 2004 final. But the Uzbeks also routed the co-hosts and China squandered a two-goal lead to draw 2-2 with Iran.

The Iran result prompted fresh criticism by Chinese media with the official Xinhua news agency commenting on a "lack of certain technical style and faint concept of how to set a well-organized midfield."

China has only met Uzbekistan once in the Asian Cup, losing 2-0 in 1996, but they beat the former Soviet republic 3-1 in a friendly in March.

Uzbekistan also has Islom Inomov suspended but it is likely to welcome back Olympic captain Aziz Haydarov after his recovery from injury.

"Losing those two players is not a big problem for China, they have players who can play instead of them," said Uzbek coach Rauf Inileyev.

Zhu took over in early 2005 after China's failure to reach last year's World Cup, but the team has slipped down the rankings to 76 and lost warm-up friendlies to Australia, the United States and Thailand.

The unpopular coach has become a consistent target for the impatient Chinese fans no matter whatthe result. Almost 60 percent of 30,000 respondents on a Sina.com poll thought he made a mistake by being too conservative during China's 2-2 tie with Iran, a game China lead 2-0.

In another poll, 33 percent of 35,000 respondents thought the mental weakness of Zhu and the Chinese players could be the deciding factor during China's game against Uzbekistan today. Another 28 percent said China would lose the game if it adopts overly conservative tactics.

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