Although the Chinese women's football team won two games and two victories in the Asian Cup and advanced to the knockout rounds, the heat was completely inferior to that of the Chinese men's football team in Japan.
Compared with the Chinese men's football team, which has missed the World Cup and accompanied the Japanese team through the stage, the Chinese women's football team is currently preparing for the upcoming quarterfinals in India in a low profile. According to the Asian Cup schedule, the Chinese women's football team is likely to meet the Japanese women's football team in the semifinals after the quarterfinals - the Chinese men's and women's football teams have met Japan successively, and the results may be very different.
"I think the most important thing at the moment is to have healthy players." Chinese women's football coach Shui Qingxia led the team to prepare for the asian cup, and the goal of the competition is not only to rush to the final of this cup, but also more important at the moment is epidemic prevention.
On January 23, the Indian women's football team broke out a large-scale outbreak of new crown infection and was expelled from the second match of the Asian Cup group.
The head coach of the Indian women's football team was puzzled by the AFC's approach, shelling the AFC and attacking "the practice of expelling more than 11 people infected is a lack of sympathy and respect".
It is reported that the reason for the large-scale outbreak of The Indian women's football team stems from the cluster infection of the hotel staff where the team lives, which inevitably affects the team after entering the hotel.
The manager said he didn't know why the AFC didn't act immediately. "The AFC should have called the hotel directly and asked the infected employees to leave and not to have any contact with the players, but they didn't do it." He said.
It is reported that before the Indian women's football team was widely infected, these confirmed hotel staff were still providing food for the team and cleaning the room.
Due to the cancellation of the second and third group matches of the Indian women's football team, the results of their first match against Iran were invalidated. Currently, in the Group A standings, India's points have been cleared to zero.
After the Indian women's football team was expelled, it sounded the alarm for the participating teams in this Asian Cup. In addition to the results, the main goal of the teams is to be able to participate in the game normally, and epidemic prevention has become a more important task.
At present, the local epidemic in India is serious, with more than 300,000 cases reported every day. In light of this, the Asian Cup teams have adopted strict biosecurity measures in their hotels and training bases in Mumbai, avoiding exposure to any cases and undergoing daily nucleic acid tests, doing their best to isolate themselves from the rising trend of the Indian pandemic.
For the Chinese women's football team, the goal of this Asian Cup is to reach the final and win the championship.
According to the schedule, on January 30, the Chinese team will usher in the first match of the knockout round, which may be against Vietnam. From the perspective of strength, there is no problem for the Chinese women's football team to break into the final four of the Asian Cup.
In the next semi-finals, the opponent of the Chinese team is likely to be the Japanese women's football team. This is also the second time that the Chinese and Japanese women's football teams meet after the men's football team meets. Unlike the Chinese men's football team, this match is of great significance to the Chinese women's football team and is related to whether the team can advance to the final of the Asian Cup.
Another semi-final will likely be played between the South Korean women's team and the Australian women's team.
It is worth mentioning that the Australian women's football team is gaining momentum. In the group stage, the team beat Indonesia 18-0 and the team has not seen a single positive case so far.