The Middlesbrough veteran guessed right to save with his legs from Shao Jiayi's 88th-minute spot-kick to ensure that the Socceroos left with a share of the spoils in a goalless draw.

It was Schwarzer who was penalised by the referee for hauling down Qu Bo in the area, a decision the 35-year-old thought was harsh on him - but thanked his lucky stars for the save.

"I hadn't had a good run since the qualification for the World Cup in my club games for Middlesbrough," he said afterwards.

"I was told before the game it was the No.5 who takes the penalties and he normally goes right, but then it was the No.6 who took it. All I could do was stay upright for as long as possible, revert to what I normally do with penalties and I was lucky enough to go the right way and it stuck in my legs.

"Personally I didn't think it was a penalty, but the referee gave the decision.

"A lot of times playing in these conditions referees tend to give these decisions, but unless someone shows me on TV that it was, as far as I was concerned it wasn't a penalty."

He addedL "It would have been a travesty for us to lose at that stage of the game. Any penalty save is an important save but [especially] in a World Cup qualifier away from home.

"The result was always important and the team was outstanding.

"Every single player on the pitch, you take your hat off to them after a performance like that, considering the conditions, the time zones and the travelling times."

Skipper Lucas Neill praised the efforts of Michael Beauchamp and Jade North and looked forward to winning when the pair meet again in Australia.

"I thought it was extremely spirited and we showed great character," he said.

"The discipline was fantastic, the shape was superb and with all the obstacles we had to overcome, I thought we could be really proud of the performance.

"Obviously Schwarzie got bored and decided to give himself something to do - but he came up trumps."

Australia coach Pim Verbeek praised his side's determination, with injuries and niggling knocks to key players decimating his side before they arrived in the capital of the Yunnan province.

The bulk of his team only arrived on Monday following the weekend's matches in Europe, with striker Archie Thompson having to be replaced just minutes into the game after picking up an injury.

Verbeek said: "We played very well considering we only had two days preparation and the Chinese team had two-and-a-half months preparation.

"This was especially with Archie going down after only five minutes because he was our only striker. So I am very proud of the boys. We always like to win games but if you look at the whole game a draw was the best result for both teams.

"Schwarzer made a very good save. Then we had a chance in the last minute so it was an exciting finish but I was pleased with a point."

China coach Vladimir Petrovic urged his side to stay upbeat and refused to blame Shao's miss for China's failure to take all three points.

A penalty at that late stage would have probably seen them take maximum points, yet instead they have only two points from their opening two games after last month's draw with Iraq.

He said: "Although Shao missed the penalty, I do not want to criticise anybody. He was unlucky but he had the confidence to take it. Our players have fighting spirit and they did very well. Unfortunately we were unlucky but we can not say we are satisfied.

"We have no reason to be downhearted about our future chances. From the last two matches I think everybody can see our opponents are very strong. But we could have won both games so we still have hope.

"This is a tough group. I think qualification will not be decided until the last round of matches so we must keep faith in ourselves."