Chinese ace forward Wu Lei saw a telling contrast between Chinese and Japanese football at the Doha airport on Wednesday, one day after China lost to Japan 1-0 in a World Cup qualifier.

The Espanyol striker, the only overseas-based player of China, flew back to Barcelona on Wednesday while the rest of the Chinese team head for Sharjah, the United Arab Emirates to prepare for their next World Cup qualifier against Vietnam scheduled on October 7.

He met some Japanese players when he checked in at the Doha airport.

"Beside me is almost the whole Japanese team of players who are preparing to return to their respective European clubs," he wrote on social media.

"I am very impressed," he wrote.

"The gap between China and Asian top teams is really big, which we have to face up to," he noted.

China's campaign got off to a teetering start at the final stage of Asia World Cup qualification after they suffered losses to Australia and Japan in their first two games.

China head coach Li Tie bemoaned his side was simply outpaced by the oppositions who mainly are made up of Europe-based players and played the European-style game.

"My players were obviously struggling to keep up with the pace of the top Asian teams in the past two teams. We need to improve on that aspect," he said.

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