New Zealand must now beat Belgium on Wednesday to have a chance of claiming second place in the group, but that was always the aim for coach Stu Jacobs.

"Our goal was to always get a result against China, which we did, and then to get a something out of Belgium," Jacobs said.

"The end result of trying to get through (to the quarter-finals) hasn't changed and we head into Wednesday's match against Belgium with a hell of a chance."

Referring to the result Jacob's continued, "What they didn't do is throw in the towel."

"The players weren't in awe of Brazil but they realise they were up against the best in the world.

"I think Brazil were a level above where they were against Belgium and we looked a bit tired.

"The China match took a lot more out of us than we expected but that's understandable given we played most of that game with ten men."