FIFA Women's World Cup hosts China on Tuesday calmly accepted the match schedule amendment caused by typhoon Wipha, which gifted China's arch rival Denmark to have their last Group D game against Brazil one day after the China-New Zealand duel.
Meng Hongtao, the media officer of the Chinese team, told Xinhua on Tuesday night, "We accept the change and will play all out in the New Zealand game, which is a do-or-die duel."
"According to FIFA regulations, the last round of group matches must be played simultaneously to guarantee the fair play. But this time the fixture is changed becuase of the force majeure. We obey the FIFA decision and will concentrate on the match tomorrow," Meng noted.
Xue Li, the secretary general of the 2007 World Cup organizing committee, told Xinhua on telephone that China had ever proposed to postpone all the matches on Wednesday until Thursday but FIFA did not want to make such a big change.
Xue, also the vice president of the Chinese Football Association, said,"We made a delicate scheme for the match reschedule including all the four matches in the last round of Group C and D. But FIFA wanted to limit the changing area. Finally, only the fixtures of the two matches were amended."
Based on the latest weather reports about the evolution of typhoon Wipha and after having thoroughly and carefully assessed the situation with the Local Organizing Committee and the relevant Chinese authorities, FIFA decided to amend the match schedule as follows:
Match 21, Norway-Ghana will be played on Sept. 20 (17:00 local time) in Hangzhou (and not on Sept.19 in Shanghai as originally scheduled).
Match 24, Brazil-Denmark will be played on Sept.20 (20:00 local time) in Hangzhou (and not on Sept.19 as originally scheduled).
Matches 22 and 23 (Australia-Canada, 17:00, in Chengdu and China-New Zealand, 20:00, in Tianjin respectively) remain unchanged.
In the trickiest group, Athens Olympic runners-up Brazil are topping the rankings with two wins and a plus-nine goal difference. The title favorites are 99 percent into the quarterfinals and only a heavy loss (not likely) to Denamrk may change their fate.
China and Denmark, who lost 3-2 to the hosts but beat the Kiwis 2-0 later, are contesting the second qualifying berth. So far, the European giant is ranked second with advantage in four goal difference.
If China can not earn a five-goal winning margin on Wednesday, the Danes only need a 1-0 win over Brazil on Thursday to qualify.
New Zealand, who were whitewashed by Brazil 5-0, are almost packing and their hope for survival is only in theory.
According to the latest FIFA women's rankings in June, Denmark stood at sixth, Brazil at eighth, China 11th and New Zealand 23rd.
Source: Xinhua
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