Kluivert confident Indonesia will edge China in World Cup qualifier

Jakarta: Patrick Kluivert said he is “very confident” Indonesia will get a positive result against China in front of a sell-out crowd in Jakarta on Thursday to move closer to a historic World Cup spot.

Barcelona and Dutch great Kluivert saw his team thrashed 5-1 by Australia in his first game in March but they recovered to beat Bahrain 1-0 on home soil days later to leave their World Cup hopes in their own hands.

“I´m very confident, and counting on my players that they will execute the things that we trained,” the coach told reporters Wednesday ahead of the clash in Jakarta. Kluivert took his squad to a training camp on the resort island of Bali to prepare for the crucial match.

“The things we want to see tomorrow, I saw very clearly. We know the importance of the game,” he said. Japan top Asian qualifying Group C and have already punched their ticket to North America in 2026, with Australia in a distant second in the other automatic qualifying place on 13 points.

With two rounds of matches to go, Saudi Arabia are third on 10 points, one point ahead of Indonesia in fourth who have won two games and drawn three. Bahrain and China are both on six points.

Teams finishing third and fourth will go into another round of qualifying -- Indonesia´s most likely route to their first World Cup since gaining independence as a country in 1945. Indonesia has embarked on a recruitment drive of Dutch-born players overseen by coaches from the country´s former colonial ruler to bring better results.