Bora Milutinovic stopped by the SAR last night on a spying mission. The Macau-bound China coach wanted to run his eye over World Cup rivals Turkey. The charismatic 'Milu' offered to hold a press conference during half-time of the Turkey-South Africa match, but it was turned down by Hong Kong officials. The Hong Kong Football Association thought an official appearance by Milutinovic might upset the Turkish delegation. China have been pooled with Turkey, Costa Rica and Brazil in Group C in South Korea and Milutinovic wanted to make the most of his trip before joining his team in Macau, where they face Portugal in tomorrow's historic match in the former Portuguese enclave.
Milutinovic said China had not fielded their best team in recent losses to Uruguay (0-2) and Dutch club PSV Eindhoven (0-1) and he would not say whether they would be at full strength against Portugal. 'I have tried all the players from the squad and I have a very good idea about the team's performance. I will field my best 11 against Costa Rica [on June 4 in Seogwipo],' he said.
China defender Fan Zhiyi, the Asian Football Confederation's Player of the Year, is likely to miss tomorrow's game and Milutinovic said the Dundee defender would receive treatment on his ankle in Macau. 'We got through all our friendlies without any major injuries apart from Fan's ankle problem so it has been good so far,' the coach said.