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AFC Asian Cup 2019
SportFootball

Wolves lead tributes to China Asian Cup comeback win over Thailand as Marcello Lippi is praised by fans

  • Game has largest media coverage of any involving China so far but not all is positive ahead of quarter-final meeting with Iran
  • Victory was first in a knockout game for 5,283 days since semi-final of 2004 Asian Cup in Beijing

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China’s Zheng Zhi celebrates after the 2019 AFC Asian Cup round of 16 win over Thailand. Photo: Xinhua
Jonathan White
Wolverhampton Wanderers unexpectedly led the congratulations to China’s victory over Thailand at the AFC Asian Cup on Sunday night.
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The Chinese-owned English Premier League club posted from their official account on football app Dongqiudi, the Chinese-language equivalent of All Football.

Wolves congratulated the Chinese national team for victory before pointing out that they won a China-Thailand game the day before. Fosun-owned Wolves beat King Power-owned Leicester City at Molineux Stadium on Saturday.

In the comments on the Wolves post, many fans urged them to buy the star of the current China team Wu Lei who has been widely linked with a move to the Premier League new boys.

However, comments about Wu elsewhere on social media were not all positive after his contribution to China’s comeback win.

Some blamed the Shanghai SIPG forward for squandering chances with some criticising him for not making the score 5-1, in reference to the 5-1 loss to Thailand in 2015, instead of 2-1.

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Most fans are defending him, knowing he was playing with injury, and pointing out that once again China only won with him in the side.

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