The numbers though make for disappointing reading, with China conceding three goals, scoring none, managing no points, and seeing any hope of making it to Paris ended with a game to spare.

“Korea are a strong team, even if we have more opportunities but fail to seize them, it showed the gap between the two teams,” Cheng said. “Maybe we can take those chances in our third or fourth match. Our players have less experience in such high-level events, after all, so they did well already.”

A pair of goals from striker Lee Young-jun on either side of the half at the Abdullah bin Khalifa Stadium, coupled with Japan’s 2-0 win over the United Arab Emirates hours later, sealed the fate of the two winless teams in the group.

China also lost to Japan 1-0 earlier in the week, despite playing most of the match with a man advantage after defender Ryuya Nishio was sent off in the 17th minute.

A side lacking any consistent threat up front managed just nine shots on target across two games, and Cheng was forced to throw on towering substitute goalkeeper Yu Jinyong in an effort to change China’s fortunes.

Striker Tao Qianglong laid the blame for a lack of support in attack at the feat of the Chinese Super League.

“With the five-foreign player’s policy, the front three [of any teams] could all be foreigners, then there’s lack of training for Chinese players,” the Wuhan Three Towns winger said.

“Scoring touch is not something you can gain from routine training; a striker needs to find his scoring touch in the league games, that’s how they can help the national team.”

Whilst Weibo users seem no longer surprised by a lack of firepower, using the 6ft 5 inch Yu as a striker raised some eyebrows.

“To put a goalkeeper at outfield position with less than 10 minutes to go, who in their right mind could do this?” a Weibo user asked.

“Whether it is China without a proper striker, or a proper coach, I have no answers to this,” read another comment.

Korean media were also less than impressed, describing Yu as “slow and ineffective” and seeing his introduction as signalling “the collapse of Chinese football”.

Cheng, acknowledged that using Yu had been an act of desperation, but not one without merit.

“Yu was a striker growing up, his headers are often quite nice in training, and since there were no better options, that was our last-minute tactic,” the Chinese coach said.