"I hope they can reach the final!"

Football fans were excited about the Women's World Cup and China's prospects in the tournament at a Chinese Super League match in Beijing on Friday.

After losing their opening game to Germany, the Steel Roses won their second Group B match against South Africa. The win means they have a chance to advance to the knockout stage if they can beat Spain on Monday evening (midnight in Beijing).

World Cup regulars

The Chinese women's football team has a long track record at international tournaments, qualifying for every Women's World Cup since 1991, except for one. In 1999, they even reached the final, only to lose narrowly to the U.S. on penalties. In all World Cups, they have made it at least to the quarter-finals.

Enthusiasm for the team was palpable among fans interviewed by CGTN ahead of Monday's match.

"They need to win," said 18-year-old Xue Yuzhe.

"I will watch, I will definitely watch," noted an elderly fan, adding that he also had his money on Brazil and Australia to go far in the tournament.

China hosted the inaugural Women's World Cup in 1991 and again in 2007.

Today, most fans can name star player Wang Shuang, who plays for French club Paris St-Germain and was named the 2018 Asian Women's Footballer of the Year. Other well-known names include veteran player Liu Shanshan and Li Ying, whose goal against South Africa on Thursday kept China's hopes of advancing in the Women's World Cup alive.

Matches have been broadcast live on sports channel CCTV 5, and Chinese media have closely followed the team's movements in France.

'Not as intense, not as exciting' 

However, since hitting a peak in the 1990s, when they reached the World Cup finals and won Olympic silver, the Steel Roses have lost some of their shine.

"Ten years ago, they were incredibly strong," Simon Chadwick, a professor of sports enterprise at Salford University and expert on Chinese football, told CGTN.

"They should be contenders (at the World Cup in France)… but the women's team hasn't been nurtured as it needed to be."

Like people elsewhere, many Chinese still see women's football as less competitive than the men's game.

"It's not as good, not as intense, not as exciting," one fan of the Chinese Super League side Beijing Guoan told CGTN.

"People often say they are interested, but when there's a game, more people will watch the men's football," added another.

Key to China's success

As China aims to become a football powerhouse in the next few decades, investing in the women's side could be the fastest way to achieve that goal.

Ranked 16th in the world by FIFA, they are far ahead of the men's team, which stands in just 73rd place, behind Albania, Honduras and Burkina Faso.

In their sole World Cup appearance in 2002, the men's side went out in the group stage, having lost all three of their games.

"For the Chinese government, women's football is the safer bet. Their FIFA ranking is good, they're historically strong," said Chadwick.

"With more investment, more nurturing, they could conceivably deliver success at the global level that China wants."

Late kick-off

For now, Chinese fans are content just to see their team make it to the last 16.

"I think it will be good enough if the Chinese women's football team make it to the knockout stage. If they can just show their ability, that will be enough," said Beijing Guoan season ticket holder Cui Xiangdong.

Despite the late kick-off time, hardcore fans on this side of the globe will be tuning in on Monday, including eight-year-old Feng Jiaxuan.

"If she can get up, she can watch," her father said as the two, decked out in green shirts, headed to Beijing's Workers' Stadium to watch their team play Shanghai Shenhua.

Asked if she thought China could go all the way, Jiaxuan had no doubt. "China is the best!" she said.