World Cup qualifiers 2025 LIVE: Socceroos take on China in front of huge crowd in Hangzhou

Tonight’s match is at the 80,000-seat Olympic Sports Centre Stadium in Hangzhou, and all suggestions are that it should be packed to the rafters. Or close to. It might even be the biggest crowd in Chinese national team history.

By my reckoning, it will also be one of the biggest crowds the Socceroos have ever played in front of – at least in Asia during World Cup qualifying.

The record was set in 1997, in the first leg of that tie against Iran at the Azadi Stadium in Tehran. There were 128,000 people there that day. I can’t see that number ever getting beaten.

On two other occasions, according my preliminary research, they have played before six-figure crowds in Iran, but after that, we come to the 81,116 people who watched them fall to England at Wembley Stadium almost two years ago. Then the 70,059 at the Gelora Bung Karno Stadium in Jakarta last year for the 0-0 draw with Indonesia. Then there was that other friendly against Argentina – in Beijing, you’ll recall – in mid-2023, which was watched by 68,000 punters, who, let’s be honest, were all there for Leo Messi.

We don’t know exactly how many tickets have been sold or made available for tonight, but expect the attendance figure to be in and around these sorts of numbers.

Tony Popovic made wholesale changes for the second match in each of the October and November windows, swapping out six of his players from his starting XI on each occasion, presumably to freshen things up after the long-haul travel from Australia and difficult Thursday-Tuesday turnarounds.

He’s done similar here, with three new players coming into the side that beat Indonesia 5-1 on Thursday night: Ryan Teague, Brandon Borrello and Milos Degenek.

Teague is the big one. The 23-year-old was signed by Popovic at Melbourne Victory last season and has had a ripping campaign in the A-League. Believe it or not, he also has Chinese heritage, and was contacted by the Chinese Football Association to see if he’d be interested in representing them. He said no, and here he is, starting in midfield against them for the Socceroos.

He replaces Aiden O’Neill, while Borrello comes in for the injured Adam Taggart up top and Degenek relieves Kye Rowles in the back three.

Again, there’s no room in the squad for Nectarios Triantis or Marco Tilio.

As for China, the above names won’t mean a whole heap to you, most likely – but they are missing their preferred starting centre-backs as well as winger Liangming Lin, who was red-carded in their last-start 1-0 defeat to Saudi Arabia. So they are definitely not at full strength, and are there for the taking if the Socceroos are good enough.