After China's disappointing defeat against Iran on Thursday night, CGTN Sports Scene spoke to CCTV 5 anchor Shao Shengyi, who has taken a closer look at China's defeat and what it now means for Chinese soccer.

Shedding some light on China's poor show under outgoing coach Marcelo Lippi, Shao said, "This time it's quite difficult to predict who will be the successor of Marcelo Lippi but one thing is for sure that we can't find a better coach than Lippi in the world for our national team.

"Personally, I think the bigger concern than the coach issue will be the players. You can see we are the oldest squad in this year's Asian Cup with an average age of close to 30. That means most of our players are over 30. We can't see many competitive players from the younger generation who have the ability to play at the international soccer.

"That is a very big concern because the next qualification for the World Cup will be starting this year in September. 2050 (when China aims to win the World Cup) is a little bit far away and still 30 years to go."

When it comes to the soccer team's World Cup-winning goal, he believes it is important to divide the long-term objective into several short-term goals and make things happen.

"We can never build a castle in the air," he said.

As it is hard for players to achieve good results within a short period, Shao has encouraged players to stick to one proper way.

"There is no short cut in soccer. I think that's the way Chinese soccer player should play."