They win 1-0 despite being reduced to 10 men and having two shots all night Ten-man China claimed an outrageous victory over Malaysia to remain in complete control of Group Four of the Asian zone in the World Cup qualifying campaign, winning 1-0 in Penang's City Stadium despite having only two shots at the target all night. 'I think we were a little bit lucky,' coach Arie Haan said, proving he has mastered the understatement after Li Jinyu's 67th-minute goal had rescued his side from Zheng Zhi's dismissal for earning two yellow cards in the space of two minutes early in the second half. 'Everybody laughed when I said I wanted to win this game, but Malaysia could have won,' insisted Hungarian coach Bertalan Bicksei of his first competitive game in charge. 'We had so many chances to score.' What, on paper at least, should have been a simple task for the Asian Cup finalists had started according to plan as Zheng Bin forced a corner within 23 seconds of the opening whistle and Li headed narrowly over with just two minutes on the clock. However, it took 35 minutes for a conservative China to force a save from Mohd Syamsuri in the Malaysian goal - a run and drive by Beijing midfielder Yang Pu that the keeper spilled and regathered - by which time the home team were unrecognisable from the timid outfit that had begun the game. Veteran right-winger Eddy Helmi had the best effort of the first-half, forcing Liu Yunfei to backpedal desperately before leaping athletically to tip a 20-yard shot over the bar. At the interval Haan pushed on Yang Song for the ineffective Zheng Bin on China's left, but any plans had to be quickly revised. Since earning rave reviews and interest from Europe for his Asian Cup performances, Shenzhen star Zheng Zhi has shown signs of being affected mentally by the attention. He produced another indication just moments after being shown a yellow card for a foul on Akmal Rizal by yanking back Mohd Fadzli when the Pahang striker turned him on the halfway line. The red card was inevitable as it was unnecessary. Initially China looked in trouble. Around the hour mark Tengku Hazman was robbed by a last-ditch block from Wei Xin, while Akmal, who stunned China's Olympic team by earning Malaysia a draw against them in March, broke clear from halfway only to finish his foot race with a sliced shot wide of the mark. Li's goal came just moment's later, struck home from the edge of the box after a tidy header from the calm and composed Li Ming had set him up. China played for time, but Helmi was still able to hit the bar from 25 yards out with a surprise effort two minutes from the end of normal time, while substitute Saravanan floated a header narrowly wide of the post during time added on. 'We had a very lucky victory. Sometimes that can happen. No team in the world can play stable all the time,' Haan confessed. 'When you win when you are not stable it is good. The positive thing is when you win games that you shouldn't, but I am disappointed with how we played.' Living proof of the old adage that it is better to be lucky than good, China now sit top of the Group Four table with four wins out of four and a maximum 12 points and can qualify for the next stage by avoiding defeat in their remaining two games, the first in Kuwait next month. 'We've kept our chances of qualifying very high,' said Haan. 'But we have our most difficult game in front of us. The next game will decide everything.'