The 2023 Asian Cup was originally planned to be held in China, but due to our inability to guarantee the viewing experience at the start of the tournament, the venue was changed. Qatar, which has successfully hosted the 2022 World Cup, became the host, according to the latest official news, the match time of the 2023 Qatar Asian Cup was confirmed, locked in January 12, 2024, and the first round of the group match happened to be the first day of the new year, this schedule is reminiscent of the humiliation of losing 1-3 to Vietnam in the Asian Zone Round of 12 of the National Football World Preliminary Round, which was also the first day of the new year.
Qatar has become the host of the Asian Cup as the Asian champion and is hosting the Asian Cup for the third time, having previously hosted the 2011 Asian Cup and the 1988 Asian Cup. In the 2019 Asian Cup, Qatar made history to be crowned champion trophy, and in the past 10 years has focused on football development and achieved rapid success, currently ranking 60th in the world. Although the national football team is reversing, there are signs of self-abolition of martial arts, the national football team under the leadership of Li Tie and Chen Jiayuan has not played at the level it should, the use of naturalized players has been restricted, and the team has a nightmare of losing to Vietnam.
Now, the national football team is in chaos, after Li Tie left office, a series of violations were investigated, and it has been taken away for several months, and the incident is widely involved, and 14 people have been taken away, including Chen Jiayuan. At present, the national football team is on the way back on the right track, the new coach Jankovic has taken office, the new training period confirms that it will return to the Lippi period, reuse naturalized players, and strive to make local players and naturalized international players form a good chemical reaction, and put an end to the "return pass" kick and "protective catch" kick style dominated by local players in the Li Tie period.
The 24 teams participating in this year's Asian Cup have been born, including the national football team, Hong Kong, Iran, Iraq, India, Indonesia, Japan, South Korea, Jordan, Kyrgyzstan, Lebanon, Malaysia, Oman, Palestine, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Tajikistan, Thailand, United Arab Emirates, Uzbekistan, Vietnam, Australia and Bahrain. The national football team, ranked 80th in the world and 11th in Asia, is basically confirmed to be in the second bracket, and after the draw group, it is confirmed that it will meet a seeded team.
Since Jankovic's use of naturalized players is no longer restricted, and the willingness of naturalized international players to participate in the Asian Cup is very strong, it means that the national football team has basically confirmed that there are 5 naturalized international players in the Asian Cup, including Li Ke, Jiang Guangtai, Axon, Alan, Fernando, this training has allowed Jiang Guangtai and Axon to return first, Alan and Fernando are in the Baja Liga to maintain their form, Li Ke has just returned from injury and needs time to recover.
At the same time, by reusing 5 naturalized international footballers, the overall strength of the national football team will match the identity of the second-tier team, and the target will be the favorite to qualify from the group, and the goal is to enter the knockout round as the second place in the group. This positioning has already appeared in the Lippi period, in the 2019 Asian Cup, Lippi led the national football team to lose to the seeded team in the group stage, but defeated the Philippines and Kyrgyzstan, had a solid record against the lower ranked teams, defeated Thailand in the knockout round, and finally fell in the 14th final, losing 0-3 to Iran. You know, the national football team led by Lippi at that time did not have naturalized players, so it can be judged that the national football team reuses 5 naturalized players at the same time, as long as the tactics and employment are properly matched, the group qualification should be the bottom line.