China defeated the Maldives 3-0 in an international friendly match.

During the first half of the match played at the country's Chongqing Stadium, China controlled the ball and created numerous attacks. However, the Maldivian defensive wall could not be broken through during that half.

Stepping out to play in the second half, China's Wang Ziming scored a hat-trick within 13 minutes. This marks the first hat-trick scored by a player in the Chinese national team since October 2019.

Since China's Under-23 national team is competing in the Asian Games currently underway in Japan, many key senior team players were not included in the squad assembled for the two matches played during this international break.

To compensate for this, China's coach Shao Jiayi gave opportunities to nine completely new players from the senior national team.

Before taking to the match, Maldivian coach István Urbányi stated that the Maldives would use the match to learn and gain experience.

At times during the match, the Maldives also strung together continuous passes, even if only for brief moments.

The Maldives' upcoming matches are against Kyrgyzstan and Lebanon. Both of those matches will be played in Kyrgyzstan. The first match against Kyrgyzstan will be played this coming Monday. The match against Lebanon will take place this coming Thursday.