KUNMING, China (AFP) - China remained hopeful Thursday of qualifying for the World Cup 2010 despite drawing 0-0 with powerhouses Australia and missing a golden chance to beat the Socceros.

Star midfielder Shao Jiayi had a late penalty saved as China drew with Australia despite showing an impressive attack for much of the game.

"This team of ours still has a lot of hope," China's under-fire coach Vladimir Petrovic told journalists.

"We have two points from two matches so this does not mean that we are eliminated at all," he said of an earlier 1-1 draw with Iraq.

China will need to win a June 2 match against Qatar, who beat Iraq 2-0 on Wednesday, to keep their hopes alive in Asian qualifying's "Group of Death."

Following Wednesday's match Australia sit at the top of the table with four points, followed by Qatar with three and Iraq with one.

"We are facing very strong opponents but what is important is that in these two matches (Australia and Iraq) we had a lot of good chances to win both," Petrovic said.

The fiery Serb vowed to get serious with penalty practise after China flubbed two spot kicks in their last two matches and nine in international play over the last four years.

"The players have got to be more serious, we missed our penalty kicks in the last two matches so we need to be more serious," Petrovic said.

Shao, who plays for the German-side Energie Cottbus, was distraught following the failed 88th minute penalty kick and offered to take the blame if China should miss qualification, but his teammates were more forgiving.

"Right now I think we should be looking more at where China's team is right now and not so much at the results," said Manchester City midfielder Sun Jihai.

"We can see that we have hope and that we have found our way of playing... after this match we have to build up our confidence and if we play to our level in the next match we can fight for eventual qualification."

After a quiet opening period in the match played here in Kunming, China came out firing for the second half and tested Australian goalie Mark Schwarzer with a point blank header from striker Zhu Ting.

A minute later Shandong Luneng forward Han Peng fluffed a clear scoring chance, disappointing the 32,500 fans at Tuodong Stadium.

In the dying minutes, Middlesbrough's Schwarzer brought down Qu Bo in the box and was yellow-carded as his heroics appeared to have come to nought.

But Shao, under intense pressure to earn China's first win, shot tamely.

Australia were firm favourites but they had only two days to acclimatise to Kunming's 1,900 metre (6,233 foot) altitude and were missing Everton's Tim Cahill and Celtic striker Scott McDonald among a host of players out injured.