HONG KONG, March 24: Rows over venues and anthems overshadow Wednesday’s crunch Asian World Cup qualifiers, when China host Australia and North and South Korea square off for a rare Cold War clash in Shanghai.

China’s decision to play at altitude has irked Australia, while the two Koreas were forced onto neutral ground after the North said the South couldn’t use their national flag or anthem in Pyongyang.

Heavyweights Japan travel to Bahrain and Asian champions Iraq are in Qatar in other highlights of the second set of matches. Two teams from each of five groups qualify for the fourth and final round of Asian qualifying.

Australia coach Pim Verbeek heads to Kunming in southern China, hoping the thin air 1,900 metres (6,200 feet) above sea level won’t deflate his winning start last month.

Great things are expected of Verbeek’s entirely European-based team, despite last year’s Asian Cup flop, after Australia reached the World Cup second round in 2006.

“Probably we will have the better players, so the only way (for China) to beat us is to make it as difficult as possible -- and that’s why they play in Kunming and not in Beijing or Shanghai,” he complained earlier.

“They’re not stupid. On purpose they play at 1,900 metres, on purpose they ask us to travel longer than normal -- that’s why we play in a place nobody has heard of.”

Australia have been hit by injuries to star midfielder Tim Cahill, Mile Sterjovski, Brett Emerton and striker Joshua Kennedy, but Liverpool’s Harry Kewell played 45 minutes of Saturday’s 0-0 run-out against Singapore. While Australia are hotly tipped, China are already marked for the chop after drawing against Iraq in a slow start to Group 1, the obligatory “Group of Death.”

China have been in steady decline since reaching the 2002 World Cup and the Asian Cup final two years later, making an early exit at last year’s regional competition and finishing third at the East Asian championships in February.—AFP