In an international friendly game in Suzhou in east China's Jiangsu Province on Saturday, neither China nor India managed to score.

Before the game started, China held a memorial ceremony for Zheng Zhi and Gao Lin who have both played 100 games for their country. Manager Marcello Lippi brought his players memorial jerseys while the Chinese Football Association (CFA) prepared two big pictures which featured Zheng's and Gao's names and a big "100".

As the game began, China did not show any superiority even though they are the better team in every sector, and India did not show any fear, threatening China's goal several times with counter strikes. However, by halftime, they still hadn't found the back of the net.

China bolstered their offense in the second half while India focused more on defense as they slowly ran out of energy. Though China hit the posts twice in the 50th and 70th minute respectively, they were not lucky enough to put the ball into their rival's goal. India on the other hand, almost scored in the fourth minute of added time. But neither side could break the deadlock.

This was the first time China and India played against each other outside of India. Before this game, the two played in total 17 times with 12 wins and five ties, giving China the clear upper hand in the rivalry. The last time China played against India was in 1997 and it ended with a 2-1 win for the away team.

Since the two countries have a combined population of about 2.8 billion, this friendly was called "Earth derby" by some media outlets. India attached a lot of importance to the game by calling it a "historic" international friendly so they will likely be happy to go home with a tie. By contrast, though China continued their unbeaten record against India, failing to take a win over the team ranked No. 97 in the world is more disappointing than relieving.