China were leading 7-2 with six minutes remaining and seemingly cruising through to the knock-out stage but suddenly allowed Iraq, who needed to win to snatch second place in Group D, to run riot as they quickly battled to within one goal of their opponents.

However, Iraq just ran out of time to hand China second place behind Japan, meaning they will play Thailand in the last eight on Thursday.

"We played well except for the last three minutes,” said Da Silveira.

“My players were too relaxed once they had built a big lead. I already told them in the changing rooms that this does not happen again.

“Now, I hope, we will win against Thailand.”

Iraq coach Asaad Al Hamadani felt the result was cruel on his side.

"Yes, we lost today, but we did not deserve defeat,” he said.

“We looked better than our rivals and had more opportunities to score.”

Despite the fact his side now head home empty handed, Al Hamadani believes his players are getting better with every tournament.

“Our team is composed entirely of amateurs but we showed progress compared to 2008 and that pleases me,” he added.

Rodrigo: Turkmen made it tough

Meanwhile, Japan coach Miguel Rodrigo was left frustrated as his side struggled to break down Turkmenistan with Takanori Kamiyama’s 11th minute goal settling the encounter in favour of the East Asians.

"Throughout nearly the entire match our rival played their goalkeeper as an outfield player and we had to defend for a long time,” said Rodrigo.

"The audience did not see a beautiful game. Playing four players against five is incredibly difficult.”

The Japanese were already through to the quarter-finals having won their first two group games to take first place and will play Kyrgyzstan on Thursday.

Turkmenistan coach Victor Kurochkin believes there was little more his side could have done to have secured victory against Japan and bemoaned a lack of luck throughout the tournament.

“Today we really wanted to beat our opponent. I think that we were worthy, but in this tournament luck was not on our side," he said.