Yangsan: India crashed to its first defeat in Asian Games football when it lost to China 0-2 in a crucial Group 'C' league match on Thursday.

The defeat, India's first in three games after wins over Bangladesh and Turkmenistan, also dealt a serious blow to its hopes of progressing past the first round, a feat last achieved in the 1982 Asiad in New Delhi.

The win helped China top Group 'C' and book a place in the last eight while India will now have to see whether it can find a berth as the best second placed team from among Groups 'B' 'C' and 'D'.

Stephen Constantine's boys today looked a pale shadow of the team that came back brilliantly to beat Turkmenistan. The wily Chinese also closely marked the two Indian strikers Baichung Bhutia and Avishek Yadav.

Just as in the earlier matches, the below par display in the first 45 minutes proved to be India's undoing and both the goals scored by China came in the first half.

After taking a little while to settle down, China took the lead in the 16th minute when Yu Tyu converted a penalty. Just as the match was heading towards the half-time break, India had a good chance to restore parity with Bhutia finding S Venkatesh inside the rival box.

But Venkatesh's powerful shot angled towards the far post was brilliantly saved by the Chinese 'keeper. The counter attack, which followed took the ball into the Indian area and the Indian defenders waiting for the half-time whistle were caught napping by Yu Tyu who hammered home China's second goal giving no chance to Indian custodian Rajat Ghosh Dastidar.

PTI