After Alain Perrin was sacked for China's poor performance at the 2018 FIFA World Cup qualification, Gao volunteered himself to be the next head coach, stating that it was his mission as a football coach to help the national team when it needs help. He was appointed the team's coach on 3 February 2016. In his first two matches, and also China's last matches to qualify for the last round of 2018 FIFA World Cup, Gao Hongbo and the Team Dragon created one of the most miraculous stories in their qualification history. China continued their journey by beating Maldives 4–0 at home; therefore they took the second position back from Hong Kong due to Qatar's 2–0 win over Hong Kong. In the last match, China must win Qatar while waiting North Korea, Jordan, Syria, Oman, the UAE and Iraq (Kuwait is being banned) to fail to defend their positions. China beat Qatar 2–0, and due to Socceroos's 5–1 thrash over Jordan and North Korea's shocking 2–3 loss to the Philippines, China managed to qualify to the last round of the 2018 World Cup qualification in Asian zone, as the last of top four teams. They also earned a ticket to qualify direct to the 2019 AFC Asian Cup held in the UAE. Later, Oman also failed to defend their positions after losing 0–2 to Iran. Gao resigned on 11 October 2016 after losing to Syria 1–0 and Uzbekistan 2–0 respectively in the 2018 FIFA World Cup qualification – AFC Third Round.