No surprise, the national football team lost 2-0 away to Japan. However, the national football team did not get out of the group, this round Of Australia beat Vietnam 4-0, which means that the national football team is 9 points behind the opponent with 3 games left in the group stage, because the group score first looks at the goal difference, theoretically the national football team still has the opportunity to surpass Australia.
Australia's remaining three opponents are Oman, Japan and Saudi Arabia, while the three opponents of the national football team are Vietnam, Saudi Arabia and Oman. The premise of the national football team to get the third place in the group is that Australia has lost all 3 games, and the remaining 3 games of the national football team have won all, and the Chinese team must also earn enough net wins to surpass the opponent, the current Australian goal difference is 9, and the national football team is -6, we want to play the play-offs with the third place in the group, it is also difficult to climb to the sky.
Therefore, the national football team may be out early in the next round of matches as soon as possible, with Australia playing Oman away in the next round, while the national football team will have to play away against Vietnam. This game will be held on February 1, the first day of the Chinese New Year, if China does not win against Vietnam, or Australia gets 1 point on Japan, the national football team will be out of the round in advance. Therefore, Chinese fans may have to face such a cruel fact: on the happy days of the New Year's Day, the national football team may be out of the game early to add to everyone's blockage.
Of course, this scene may be expected by most Chinese fans, after all, with the current situation of the national football team, it is very difficult to break through the siege of Saudi Arabia, Japan and Australia in the top 3. It should be known that before the match with the Japanese team, foreign media estimated that the probability of the Chinese team qualifying was only 0.01%, and after losing to the Japanese team, the probability of the national football team qualifying was about equal to none.
Realistically, the Chinese Football Association may need to think ahead about the next World Cup cycle. Through these 12 rounds, the Football Association needs to consider whether to continue to let Li Xiaopeng lead the team to impact the 2026 World Cup, or to invite a foreign coach with strong ability as the media has called for. Another point is whether the naturalization policy should continue, from a practical point of view, the national football team spent more than 870 million yuan to impact the 2022 World Cup, naturalized Gaulat, Axon, Jiang Guangtai, Alan, Fernando, Luo Guofu and others, but what is the actual effect? If we abandon the naturalization policy, can we rely on youth training to create a team that has the ability to impact the World Cup? There are too many doubts that need to be solved one by one in the next few days.