BEIJING, June 21 (Xinhua) -- Former China international defender Zhao Peng has conceded that his predecessor Fan Zhiyi's criticism of a poor performance of his was justified.
Fan, who captained the Chinese side to the 2002 FIFA World Cup, had singled out Zhao for blame after a 5-1 defeat to Thailand in 2013, which he called a shame for Chinese football.
Zhao revealed that he had initially felt offended when he heard of Fan's comments, but he had since learned to accept it.
"I was aggrieved at his remarks at first, but then I thought it was normal for my predecessor to blame me after my performance was not good," he said.
Zhao also recalled that China had underrated Thailand in that particular match.
"We took them lightly, and when we wanted to improve our game during the match we weren't able to do it," he said. Enditem
