Brazil - 4, China - 0 Brazil may have been in Asia for three weeks now but their World Cup campaign officially begins in seven days. Their group has been little more than a warm-up, which should help them to arrive in the knock-out phase in the best possible shape.

On Saturday, China were made to look the novices they are on this stage, and Brazil's coach, Luiz Felipe Scolari, had instructed his players to take it easy against them to conserve energy for the more competitive action ahead. After Costa Rica's draw with Turkey yesterday, Brazil are already certain of making progress.

The biggest pressure they felt during an effortless encounter came from the Brazilian media, who sniped about everything from tactical formation to casual passing. Brazil at their most artistic this was not. But as Rivaldo countered afterwards, "China are not amongst the biggest teams in the world but a lot of teams are losing to opponents they shouldn't. In this World Cup there is not one team that can't be beaten."

Argentina's capitulation to England in particular raised a few eyebrows in the Brazilian camp. Roberto Carlos described it as "the best match of the opening round in terms of the amount of quality on the pitch. We all enjoyed watching it," he said.

"England were very impressive. I believe they can go very far."

The Brazilians, though, are in confident mood.

"I am looking for the title," said Rivaldo. "This whole squad is very determined and trying to improve all the time."

The attacking interplay between him, Ronaldo and Ronaldinho is gradually sparking to life, even if they scarcely needed to accelerate out of first gear to puncture China's young defence.

Indeed, Bora Milutinovic's side performed bravely, if a little naively, and even though their World Cup debut is effectively over they need feel no shame.

"Normally you can't be happy when you lose but the effort they made makes me so happy. You have to understand that this is their first time ever in the World Cup and they were playing against one of the most dangerous teams here," he said.

To critics who have said that China's lack of fouls suggested that they don't possess the determination to fight, the coach was scathing.

"Football is not about making fouls," he added. "This is not gladiators. Football is about trying to play. I educate my players not to kick everything."

Scolari doesn't agree.

"I think they are innocent," he said. "It's not that I encourage players to commit fouls, but if the other team are building up a good move and you have a chance to stop it, there's nothing wrong with giving away a free-kick."

Milutinovic, for whom China represent the fifth team he has led at the tournament, refused to blame the loss through injury of key defenders Fan Zhiyi and Sun Jihai for any of the goals.

"If I was looking for excuses I could tell you, yes, they were missing. But look at Du (Wei). He had a great game, super, and he is, what, 20 or 21," he said of the stand-in for Fan.

On the question of who Brazil might meet as they progress, Scolari was not for guessing.

"For the moment it is too early to think about next round because we are still not there. We have to wait and see, then think about the opponent we will have.

"I know the team is getting better match by match so I hope they can keep on improving."

He added: "We knew China would start with pressure so we decided to wait 10 to 15 minutes then we started to play our way. We knew we were technically superior to China so we waited our time.

"We also knew what they were capable of and we did our best against the opponents we had, but we realised we were better because we are more experienced but it was still a good match."

Scolari, upset over the Rivaldo play-acting controversy last week, was angry again on Saturday, believing Ronaldinho was unfairly booked for diving.

Television replays suggested Ronaldinho was pulled back by his shirt as he tried to break clear of a defender midway through the first half but the referee awarded China a free-kick and booked the Paris St Germain player.

"You talked so much about Rivaldo, now I'd like you to talk about what happened to Ronaldinho," Scolari told reporters.

"It was a foul on Ronaldinho but instead he got the yellow card. Let's see what happens now."

China, are still searching for their first World Cup goal - a rattled post denied them that pleasure against Brazil - and one in Thursday's farewell appearance against Turkey will enable them to hurdle a great psychological wall. As for Brazil, who play Costa Rica the same day, it's business as usual.

Guardian Service

SUBSTITUTES - Brazil: Denilson (for Ronaldhino 46 mins), Ricardinho (for Juninho 70 mins), Edilson (for Rodaldo 72 mins). China: Yang (for Ma 62 mins), Shao (for Qi 66 mins), Qu (for Hao 75 mins).

YELLOW CARDS - Brazil: Ronaldinho 24, Roque Junior 69.