In the round of 18 of the 2026 World Preliminaries, the national football team has only one way to win Huashan in Jakarta, vowing to kill Indonesia twice

"We are always optimistic that we will be positive to win against Indonesia or any other team." Before the start of the 9th round of the 2026 US-Canada-Mexico World Cup Qualifiers in the Asian Zone of 18 on the 5th, before the Chinese men's football team played a life-and-death match against the Indonesian team, coach Ivankovic said something to boost morale.

In this game away to Indonesia, China can only continue its hopes of qualifying if it wins. Photo shows Chinese players warming up before training

After preparing for the war in Shanghai, China flew directly to Indonesia, arriving in the capital Jakarta earlier. Ivankovic said that the Chinese team's preparation in Shanghai is going well, and they are looking to beat Indonesia this time.

The last time China played Indonesia was on October 15 last year, when they won 2-1 at home thanks to goals from Baihelam and Zhang Yuning, and won their first round of 18 match.

Half a year has passed, and the lineups of both sides have changed. More than half a year has passed, and there have been changes in the line-up of both sides, with the Indonesian head coach having been replaced by Kluivert, while Indonesian media reported that the Indonesian team will have six players absent from the game. On the Chinese side, Bai Helamu, Jiang Shenglong, Xie Wenneng and other players who played well against the Indonesian team in the last round will also miss the "rematch" due to injuries and suspensions, and Wu Lei is also absent due to injury.

There are only two rounds left in the round of 18 of the 2026 World Cup qualifiers in Asia, and given that China and Bahrain are currently tied on six points in Group C, three points behind Indonesia, who are fourth in the group, China must win the last two rounds if they want to qualify for the World Cup play-offs.

Therefore, in an away game against Indonesia, China must take all three points to ensure that their play-off hopes will continue until the final game, and if they draw or lose to Indonesia, the last home game against Bahrain will be basically meaningless. The first place in Group C is Japan, which has won 6 and drawn 2 in 8 rounds, and they have already qualified against Australia, who are second in the group in this round, and believe that they will retain their strength.

Jordan, South Korea, has to go all out. In Group B, the top two teams in the group, South Korea (16 points) and Jordan (13 points), will travel to Iraq (12 points) (12 points) and Oman (10 points) in third place.

In Group A, Iran, with 6 wins and 2 draws, has also qualified for 2 rounds in advance, with 2nd Uzbekistan (17 points) and 3rd UAE (13 points) meeting in this round, of which Uzbekistan will win to go straight to the World Cup finals.