Italian resigns as head coach for second time after Syria loss leaves China's World Cup hopes hanging by a thread

This time, Marcello Lippi's resignation was no surprise at all.

After a performance bereft of fighting spirt, guile, direction and organization, Team China slumped to a 2-1 defeat against Syria in Dubai to deal its World Cup qualification hopes a major blow and send Lippi angrily heading for the exit door.

"I don't want to comment on the match. A team should try its best to execute their coach's directions," the 71-year-old said as he curtly announced his departure from the job for a second time at a brief post-match news conference.

According to dongqiudi.com, Lippi was a little more acerbic with his parting words than his shocked translator had led us to believe. He is reported to have actually said: "I don't want to rob the money. What I'm earning is a lot of money. I don't want to rob it. Now I'm announcing my resignation. The decision is irrevocable."

Whatever Lippi's exact words, fans were generally unwilling to lay the entire blame on the coach, with some of the more sympathetic message on social media reading: "Goodbye, Lippi." ... "To save Team China, a World-Cup winning coach like you is far from enough." ... "We can save a lot of money. Let's put the money into youth soccer development."

Osama Omari had opened the scoring for Syria after 19 minutes in Dubai, with Wu Lei equalizing on the half hour. China looked like they might hang on for a valuable point only for a 76th-minute Zhang Linpeng own goal to consign Lippi's side to its first defeat in Group A.

The loss left second-place China five points behind leader Syria but only ahead of the Philippines on goal difference.

It now appears like only a timely turnaround in form can secure China a spot in the 12-team second round of Asian zone qualifying, which will be comprised of the eight group winners and the four best second-place finishers. China is currently ranked as the fourth best runner-up team.

Lack of hunger

Chinese scorer Wu could not hide his disappointment after the game.

"We played very bad. Not just the result, the whole performance was not what we wanted. We were capable of winning. The result has made everyone feel really bad. We were not as hungry as our opponent."

Lippi's exit ends a six-match second spell in charge. He was first hired in November 2016, but failed to take China to the 2018 World Cup finals in Russia and then stepped down in January this year after a disappointing Asian Cup campaign concluded in a 3-0 quarterfinal exit to Iran.

Fabio Cannavaro briefly stepped into the breach but quit after two games as he struggled to juggle the national job with his other role as Guangzhou Evergrande's head coach.

The Chinese Football Association persuaded Lippi to return in May, but his second term lasted only 175 days. He won his first four games, including two friendlies, but crucially came up short against the Philippines (0-0) and Syria in qualification.

He has already returned to his native Italy but is expected back in Guangzhou within the next month to formalize his resignation. His last words to the players were reportedly: "Good luck to you."

The CFA accepted Lippi's resignation in a statement, which read: "The Chinese national soccer squad's performances in the last two World Cup qualifiers were not satisfactory, which disappointed Chinese soccer fans. The Chinese Football Association is deeply sorry.

"Head coach Lippi announced his resignation in the post-match press conference, the CFA accepted it... The CFA will reflect seriously to rebuild the team, and try our best in the remaining qualifiers."

Fans' fury

Fans online greeted China's latest 90-minute nightmare with a mixture of anger and despair, with topics related to Lippi's resignation alone viewed over 690 million times on Weibo by Friday morning.

Renowned sports commentator Han Qiaosheng believes the former Juventus and Italy boss, who was reportedly being paid 180 million yuan ($25 million) per year by the CFA, was left with no option but to walk.

"Team China is not dead yet, but what is the value of the squad now? What's the value of the coach that we hired by paying him 23 million euros?," Han wrote on Weibo.

"Maybe Lippi himself cannot answer this question, so the only thing he can do is to resign."

China resumes its qualification campaign at home to the Maldives on March 26 followed by a trip to Guam five days later. Anything but the full six points from those games and China's hopes of reaching its second World Cup finals will surely be well and truly dead.