'A team of warriors' - China beat Cameroon to reach quarter-finals of Women’s World Cup

China assistant coach Chang Weiwei hailed his team as “warriors” after a hard-earned 1-0 win over Cameroon on Saturday took them into the quarter-finals of the Women’s World Cup.

“Today all the players were wonderful,” said assistant coach Chang, who was in charge of the team for the game due to the suspension of head coach Hao Wei.

“They put on a spectacular performance, they were resilient and brave. They were like warriors for 90 minutes.”

Twice champions Germany also reached the quarter-finals after crushing Sweden 4-1 in Ottawa. 

A series of wasted opportunities meant the Chinese had to battle until the end to make sure of the win and Chang conceded his team had to be sharper in front of goal.

“All the players worked very hard – defence is team work, it is about the work of 11 players, but there is room for improvement in attack,” he said.

China, runners-up in 1999, reached the last eight in 2007 but did not qualify for the finals four years ago in Germany and Chang said Hao deserved credit for bringing the team back to the elite of the women’s game.