Warm-up match: China National Olympic Games were reversed by Montenegro 1-2 Liu Junxian scored consecutive goals

The Chinese 2001 U22 National Olympic Team, which is training in Croatia, played an international B warm-up match with the visiting Montenegro U21 youth team yesterday (24th) evening, and was reversed 1-2 by the opponent with Liu Junxian's first goal, losing the match. However, the overall performance of the team is still good.

(1) The National Olympic Games will no longer be trained by competition

Since arriving in Zagreb, Croatia, on March 10, the Chinese U22 Olympic team has been actively training. Different from the "training by competition" and more games during the trip to Croatia in the second half of last year, during this trip to Croatia, the team paid more attention to daily training while participating in the competition, especially the special drills in the overall technical and tactical playing style. So, it's been two weeks since the Olympic team arrived in Croatia, but only yesterday the third game was played, and the intensity of the competition is no longer as great as in the second half of last year, but the pace of the competition, the intensity of the competition itself, is more than in the second half of last year. [Note: In the first match against Croatia's first division team on March 14, the U22 Olympic team lost 0-2 to Dubrava, which is currently joined by Chinese player Jia Boyan; In the first warm-up match on March 20, the Olympic team won 3-1 against Croatian third-division side FK Opatija thanks to Ma Fuyu's opening goal and two goals from Liu Junxian. 】

Moreover, there is another case here. As the U20 Asian Cup has just ended, the 99-year-old U24 Asian Games team is currently training in New Zealand, and almost 10 players from the two teams have yet to arrive in Croatia to join the team. In other words, the Chinese Olympic team currently training in Croatia has only 2/3 of the players, and the lineup is not complete. In this case, if there is another attrition such as injury, the team may not even be able to participate in the warm-up game. Therefore, relatively speaking, it can only be a little "leisurely", and when all the players are in place at the end of the month, the frequency and number of matches may be accordingly. Therefore, there are generally five to six days between the game and the game, so that the players can get enough rest and adjustment, and avoid the late injury situation is more serious like in the second half of last year, and more than half of the 29 players in the team are unable to play due to injury.

In addition to the less intensive competition schedule, another important change in the trip to Croatia is to make full use of the national team match days designated by FIFA, and the national Olympic team also warms up with national teams of the same age in Europe, rather than just limited to teams in Croatia, so that Chinese Olympic players can adapt to opponents with different styles of play and different techniques and tactics, so as to better prepare for the Olympic qualifiers. Yesterday's match against Montenegro U21 was the first international B match scheduled for the national team window.

(2) Montenegro is a team of the same age

It should be pointed out that the team sent by Montenegro is nominally "U21 team", but this age group is actually the age group of the 24th European U21 Youth Championship in Romania and Georgia in June and July this year, and the players born on or after January 1, 2000 are players who can participate in the U21 European Youth Championship, and UEFA will also use this U21 European Youth Championship as a qualifier for the European zone of the 2024 Paris Olympic Games men's football competition. The top three teams other than France will represent Europe at the Olympic men's soccer tournament. However, players born in 2000 will be disqualified. Therefore, although Montenegro plays under the name of "U21", it actually belongs to the same age group as the Chinese Olympic team. Of course, Montenegro U21 did not call up players born in 2000 this time, because Montenegro U21 team has been eliminated in the U21 European Youth Qualifiers, which ended in June last year, and did not qualify for the final stage in June and July this year.

The Bosnian U21 team, which will play five days later, on March 28, is actually exactly the same as the Montenegrin U21 team, nominally the "U21 team", but in fact it is also a team composed of players of the right age for the Paris Olympic men's football competition. Moreover, Montenegro and Bosnia and Herzegovina are in the sixth group in the 2023 UEFA U21 Youth Qualifiers, Montenegro draws 2-2 at home and Bosnia and Herzegovina plays Montenegro 2-1 at home. Throughout the qualifiers, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Montenegro were 11 points from 10 wins, 3 wins, 2 draws, 5 defeats, and finished fourth and fifth in their group due to goal difference. In the group of the two teams, the Italian Under-21 team finished first and qualified directly for the final stage.

It is understood that Montenegro still attaches great importance to the match with the Chinese Olympic team, and has recalled all 8 players of appropriate age who played overseas, including the first team or echelon of various professional clubs such as Belgium, Germany, Croatia, Portugal, Sweden, Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina. Therefore, for the Chinese Olympic team, this is also a warm-up match with relatively high quality opponents in recent times.

(3) The National Olympic Games lost 1-2 to Montenegro

The match was played in the training base of the Chinese Olympic team's own home stadium, which is Grand Gorica, and the coaching staff sent the strongest team currently available, the goalkeeper is Wang Jinshuai, the back line is Zhu Yue and Jin Shunkai as central defenders, Jiang Zhixin and Chen Yuhao are separated from the left and right full-backs; Jia Weiwei and Zheng Xuejian are in the defensive midfield position, Duan Dezhi is in front of him, He Longhai and Xie Wenneng are in the two wings; The front line is led by Liu Junxian. The overall tactical arrangement of the team can be said to be between 433 or 4231, and the formation is constantly changing according to the situation on the field.

Due to the strong wind on the day of the game, the Chinese team kicked the headwind ball in the first half, which made the whole team push forward, especially when passing the ball forward, often encountered the resistance of the wind and often had a large deviation. In contrast, Montenegro, who played with a tailwind, took advantage of the game well after the start and created their first good chance of the game in the 10th minute, but the shot was deflected.

In the 27th minute, China cooperated in a sports battle to pass the ball into the box, Liu Junxian flanked the front point, grabbed the first drop point, and then turned and shot himself to help China lead 1-0. Trailing Montenegro further strengthened their attack, and 10 minutes later, Mijovic, who plays for Belgium, had a long-range shot from 25 meters away, but it was saved by Chinese goalkeeper Wang Junshuai; One minute later, Bakić, who played for Croatian Osik, hit the post with a shot that allowed the Chinese team to escape. However, in first-half injury time, Montenegro had a free-kick opportunity up front, and after the ball was cleared, Serbian centre-forward Radulovic headed over to tie the score at 1-1. In the first half, both sides entered the lounge.

After Yi Bian, because it was a tailwind, the Chinese Olympic team performed better, and also created several chances, and the other side also had a chance. But in the 75th minute, the Chinese defender made a mistake in their own defense and gave the opponent a chance, and Vukovic, another Montenegrin team who played overseas, seized the opportunity to make it 2-1. After that, although the Chinese team tried to tie the score, it still failed to achieve it. In the end, the Chinese team lost the match 1-2.

After the game, Montenegro head coach Rakojević affirmed the performance of the Chinese team in this game, saying that he thought that Montenegro could easily win before the game, but did not expect that the Chinese team played quite well. The coaching staff of the Olympic team is also satisfied with the performance of the players, especially compared to last year, not only this game, but also the performance of the three games after coming to Croatia should be said to be improved one by one, whether it is the rhythm, confrontation and conversion in the game have improved significantly. Of course, there are still many areas for the team to improve. Overall, our players have played less of this kind of high-quality, high-level games in the last few years, so compared to their opponents, "they still don't play. ”

According to the arrangement, the Chinese U22 Olympic team will play the Bosnian U21 team on March 28.

Attached: National Olympic Team lineup

Wang Jinshuai; Jiang Zhixin, Jin Shunkai, Zhu Yue, Chen Yuhao; Jia Xuanwei, Zheng Xuejian, Duan Dezhi (Zhao Jianbo, 82'); He Longhai (Ma Fuyu, 46'), Liu Junxian (Chen Rong, 82'), Xie Wenneng (Leung Wai Peng, 82').