Striker Gao Lin scored twice as China celebrated coach Jose Antonio Camacho's 57th birthday in fine style with a 3-0 trouncing of Vietnam in an international friendly in Wuhan on Friday.
Winger Feng Renliang was also on target for China, who returned to winning ways after their creditable 1-0 friendly loss to world champions Spain last Sunday.
Gao, who plays for Chinese Super League champions Guangzhou Evergrande, opened the scoring after nine minutes as he rose above the Vietnamese defence to head in Yu Hai's free-kick from the right.
The home side extended their lead in the 35th minute when former Celtic midfielder Zheng Zhi released Feng, who ran clear of the Vietnamese defence before coolly slotting the ball past goalkeeper Nguyen Manh Dung.
Gao emphasised China's dominance when he bagged his second of the game in the 63rd minute after meeting Sun Xiang's corner with a right-footed volley in the six-yard box.
China were elbowed out by Iraq and Jordan from the World Cup 2014 qualifiers earlier this year and they will not be playing a competitive match until early 2013, when the qualifying rounds for the 2015 Asian Cup begin.
In another international friendly on Friday, Singapore scored two late goals to rescue a 2-2 draw with Malaysia in the first leg of their annual Causeway Challenge clash at the Jalan Besar Stadium.
The Tigers appeared to be headed for their first win over their southern neighbours since 2004 after Azamuddin Akil struck two minutes before half-time and skipper Safiq Rahim fired home a free-kick on the hour mark to put the visitors two goals up.
But Shahdan Sulaiman scored off a controversial indirect free-kick in the Malaysian box in the 87th minute and substitute Qiu Li thumped a 20-yard shot into the top corner of the net in the third minute of stoppage to extend the Lions' unbeaten run against Malaysia to 10 games.
Source: AFP
