Brett Holman, Mark Bresciano scored two goals as Australia edged China 2-0 at an international soccer friendly here on Saturday.

"In the first half we played very well, but in the second half we were under pressure. The players are tired after the long journey," said Australia boss Graham Arnold.

"We could not follow Australia's quick rhythm at the beginning, and were two goals down in the first thirty minutes," said China coach Zhu Guanghu.

"I made some changes after the break, and the situation became much better. But they are really strong, we have learned a lot."

Australia dominated the first half in convincing style. Bresciano, Viduka showed their class with creative footworks and posed big threats to the hosts.

Brett Holman opened the scoring on eight minutes after Bresciano rounded Xu Yunlong and fed a comfortable short pass inside the box.

The Palermo midfielder doubled the advantage in the 27th minute with a solo performance when he shagged off China's center back and sidefooted into the far corner of the net.

China rallied after the interval with their Europe-based stars. Shao Jiayi, Zheng Zhi and Dong Fangzhuo displayed their level on several occasions.

Mancherster United's Dong Fangzhuo made a sharp foray down the right flank and provided a bullet cross, only to find a sliding Zheng Zhi missed the ball.

Shao rounded one defender inside the small box and poked a curved shot just a bit wide of the post. The Cottbus playmaker was taken off the pitch for a cramp on 61 minutes.

Substitute striker Han Peng wasted the host's best chance threeminutes later when his close range shot after Zheng Zhi's pinpointlow cross was denied by Mark Schwarzer.

Editor: Donald