BELGRADE, June 4 (Reuters) - Yugoslavia coach Vujadin Boskov and his team have come in for scathing criticism after their 4-2 defeat by a South China-Hong Kong Select X1 in their final warm-up match before Euro 2000.

Saturday's defeat brought down the curtain on a disappointing tour of the Far East in which the Yugoslavs were twice held to goalless draws by South Korea and scraped a 2-0 win over China.

'Four slaps in the face in Hong Kong,' ran the headline in the sports daily Sportski Zurnal.

'Not even the worst pessimists could have expected such gambling with the reputation of Yugoslav soccer,' said the mass-circulation daily Blic. 'The Asian tour was a total fiasco.'

The Daily Vecernje Novosti was equally scathing, describing the match as 'a scandalous conclusion to the Far East tour -- a disgraceful defeat at the hands of the weakest of the three opponents.

'The only thing that should please Boskov is the return of Sinisa Mihajlovic to full form,' the paper added.

The usually optimistic Boskov was also downbeat.

'The hosts made four excursions past the halfway line in the first half and scored three goals. No serious team should ever allow that,' he said after the match.

Bosvov blamed the weather and travel fatigue for his team's lacklustre display.

'The heat was infernal and in that situation it was illusory to expect more from our team,' he said.

'But I need to have a serious talk with all my players. The jetlag and the heat took their toll but they still need to have a much more serious approach.'

'Luckily, we have enough time to bring things back to normal before the match with Slovenia.'

Yugoslavia play Slovenia in their opening group C match of Euro 2000 on June 13.