China and Chile created few chances between them in a 0-0 draw in a friendly international in the northern city of Tianjin on Wednesday.

Li Jinyu

Both sides, with under-strength line-ups, did little to excite a sparse crowd as Chile coach Juvenal Olmos fielded a team made up entirely of home-based players.

China's new Dutch manager Arie Haan also tested a handful of young players and the dearth of experience on the pitch showed in an uneventful first half, when neither side mustered much of an attack.

Chilean striker Manuel Neira had the first clear chance of the match in the 19th minute, when he controlled a bounding ball in the box, swivelled and fired a low shot wide of the far post.

The first shot on target did not come until the 34th minute when Chinese defender Zhou Ting sidestepped a defender and rifled a rising bullet from 25 metres which lunging goalkeeper Nelson Tapia punched away.

China again exhibited the stingy new style patented by Haan, who prefers a more controlled attack and forces his strikers to cover more of the field than did his more free-wheeling predecessor Bora Milutinovic.

China's Liyi battles for the ball.

Haan's increasingly disciplined Chinese charges held a jetlagged Brazil team to a brow-raising 0-0 draw in his first friendly at the helm in February. This time, he had at least six men back in defence even when Chile were on the counter-attack.

Neira almost broke the game open at the start of the second half when Mark Gonzalez found him sprinting downfield, but sprawling goalkeeper Liu Yunfei displayed lightning-quick reflexes to get a hand on Neira's point blank tap.

Chinese striker Li Yi had a similar chance in the 72nd minute on a long ball from substitute Zhou Haibin but could not slip a shot past a finely positioned Tapia.

Chile received a $100,000 fee for the game -- one tenth of what five-times world champions Brazil were paid for travelling to China earlier this year.

The Chileans are preparing for their opening South American World Cup qualifier against Argentina in Buenos Aires on September 6.

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