China eased the pressure on coach Bora Milutinovic here yesterday, outclassing minnows Indonesia 4-0 in their Asian Cup Group B match. China, lucky to sneak a 2-2 draw against South Korea in their opening match on Friday, produced a far more composed performance albeit against much weaker opposition.

The result puts the Chinese on top of Group B with four points, with Kuwait and South Korea both playhing later yesterday.

The victory also came as welcome relief to China's globe-trotting Serb coach Milutinovic, who is hoping to get his team into a winning groove.

Milutinovic has been hired with the long-term job of taking China to the 2002 World Cup finals, but after a patchy start to his tenure could not have afforded a poor result against one of Asia's weaker teams.

The match was effectively won within 10 minutes of the kick-off, with China exploiting some lamentable Indonesian defending to race into a commanding 3-0 lead.

Midfielder Li Ming opened China's account, nipping in to head home a cross from Xu Yulong in the third minute.

Five minutes later, the Chinese doubled their tally with a penalty.

Indonesia defender Warsidi lunged recklessly at Eintracht Frankfurt striker Yang Chen, leaving Lebanese referee Ayad Nabil no option but to point to the spot.

Shen Si stepped up to blast in past Indonesian keeper Hendro Kartiko and make it 2-0.

The shell-shocked Indonesian defence looked vulnerable whenever China attacked down the wings and their weakness on the flanks was in evidence for the third goal.

Li Tie curled in a cross from the right and the impressive Yang Chen ghosted away from his marker to head in goal number three.

Yang Chen was a constant menace to the Indonesian defence, creating space with some intelligent darting runs off the ball.

Indonesia, who had surprised Kuwait on Friday when they battled to a valiant 0-0 draw, never looked like causing the same sort of problems for the Chinese.

Hong Kong-based striker Rochi Putiray had a shot well-blocked on 20 minutes and Selamat Riadi saw a 30-yard shot skim the bar shortly before halftime, but those two chances aside, Chinese goalkeeper Jiang Jin was not tested.

China created plenty of chances to increase their lead, Yang Chen hammering a shot against the post on the stroke of half-time and Li Tie smashing a shot against the bar shortly after the interval.

China were able to dictate the pace of play throughout the second half and seemed content to conserve energy with an eye on Thursday's final match against the Kuwaitis.

Qi Hong wrapped up the scoring in the 90th minute, jinking into the box to side-foot the ball home.

source: www.asian-football.com