After a 90-minute pitched battle on Thursday, China's women's national football team had a 1-1 draw against Australia in their third game in Group B in the 2020 AFC Women's Olympic Qualifying Tournament.

This is China's ninth consecutive win-less game (three draws and six losses) against Australia since 2013, though it put an end to their four-straight-loss-streak to the same opponents.

"We came close to winning the game but missed it in the end. There's a lesson to be learnt in it. Our players have been adjusting themselves since the quarantine was over on February 5 and apparently we can do better. We created several opportunities but were one step away from nailing it. As long as we are working in the right direction, we will make progress step by step," said China's manager Jia Xiuquan after the game.

As No. 7 on FIFA's world ranking table, Australia led in possession in the first half of Thursday's game but China created more scoring opportunities. At the 35th minute, China's Wang Shanshan got a chance to face the goalkeeper one-on-one but was called offside. Though replay showed that referees made a mistake, unfortunately the VAR was not applied for this game.

In the last minute of the first half, Wang Shanshan hit the crossbar with a long drive.

Though China continued to threaten Australia's goal with faster speed and smarter passing, their stamina began to drop after 60 minutes. China had to rely more of their offense on defensive counter attack but it actually scored first as Tang Jiali made her country lead 1-0 with a long drive.

Nonetheless, Chinese players' happiness only lasted for less than seven minutes until Emily van Egmond tied the score for Australia with another long drive. In the end, the game was finished a happy 1-1 for Australia.

This result means China will make it to the playoff round as No. 2 of the group, and will compete with South Korea, No. 1, for an Olympic spot in Tokyo.

To be fair, Chinese players have every reason to be proud of what they have achieved after all the difficulties they overcame. The team lost the chance of playing at home because of the outbreak of the new coronavirus; they were quarantined in Australia for 14 days for the same reason; four of the team's key members including China's ace striker Wang Shuang did not play because they could not leave Wuhan, the epicenter of the outbreak.

Despite all the aforementioned difficulties, China still made it out of Group B and were equally matched in their last game against Australia, a world top-class team.

China will play against South Korea on March 6 and 11 if the schedule stays unchanged.

When asked about the team's future plan, Jia said they will stay in Australia for further training and prepare for the playoffs. "No matter who we are playing next, our own preparation matters the most. Now we have already won us time to make preparations for the playoffs."