On April 3, 2023, Beijing time, just when fans were still paying attention to the anti-corruption process of Chinese football and the new working group of the Federation of Sports was stationed in the Chinese Football Association, the Asian Cup Organizing Committee in Qatar announced the date and principles of the group draw. The draw will no longer take into account whether teams play in the Round of 12, but will only be based on the FIFA points of participating teams on April 6. Since there were no international football match windows worldwide until 6 April, the 24 teams were fully slotted. Unsurprisingly, the Chinese men's football team is in the second tier of Asia along with Iraq, Oman, Jordan, Uzbekistan and the United Arab Emirates, and the national football team will also avoid these old opponents in the group stage. Here is the detailed breakdown of the Asian Cup:
First gear: Qatar, Japan, Iran, South Korea, Australia, Saudi Arabia
Second Pot teams: Iraq, UAE, Oman, Uzbekistan, China, Jordan
Three teams: Bahrain, Syria, Palestine, Vietnam, Kyrgyzstan, Lebanon
Four teams: India, Tajikistan, Thailand, Malaysia, Hong Kong, Indonesia
Although the final draw and detailed group stage matchup will not take place until May 11, we can fully predict that the debut of the national football team in the group stage will be a life-and-death battle. Because according to the group stage principle of the Asian Cup, the first team in the group will play against the fourth team in the first round, and the second team belonging to the national football team will play against the third team in the first round. In terms of classification, Vietnam, Syria, Bahrain and Kyrgyzstan in the three gears are not soft persimmons at all.
Like Vietnam, which gave us a beating in the round of 12 last year, until now, the three sticks on the second day of the Lunar New Year have been ridiculed by fans. Although Syria has been devastated by war, many of the players are playing in Europe as refugees, and their strength should not be underestimated. Kyrgyzstan has been vigorously developing youth training in recent years, and has met with our national youth many times in Asia, and Bahrain is also our old rival, and the national football team has nothing to do with Bahrain even when Lippi is stronger. Therefore, the gap between the level of the second and third teams in Asia is not large, and the national football team plays with these teams, and any result may occur.
Therefore, the first game of the group is the most critical battle to determine the group pattern, once lost, you can only hope that the three teams take the initiative to make mistakes, or compete with Japan, Iraq, South Korea, Australia, Saudi Arabia and other top teams. On the other hand, because Du Zhaocai was previously elected as a FIFA director (now it seems that if he is elected, he will also be removed), the Chinese Football Association has no say in the AFC at all. It is also unrealistic to hope for a good draw in Qatar. If you don't want to repeat the old tradition of "key battles - life and death battles - honor battles", the national football team will give their all in the debut and play like the Asian Cup final.