With the conclusion of the 2023 Asian Cup group draw ceremony, the group stage opponents of the Chinese national football team have also been officially determined. The national team, which is drawn in Group A, will face the challenge of Qatar, Tajikistan and Lebanon respectively. For the national football team, this group can be described as a signing, because at least from a psychological level, the national football team is not afraid of any opponent in the group stage, and there is a great chance of qualifying in terms of strength. Of course, after entering the knockout round, it is the real test for the national football team.
Although Qatar was the champion of the last Asian Cup and had the advantage of the home, it is not difficult to see from the performance of the last World Cup that the overall strength of the team is not a small gap compared to the traditional Asian teams, and four years have passed, Qatar, as the defending champion, has not improved much. Although Qatar defeated the national football team in the 2011 Asian Cup, the national football team also defeated Qatar in the 2018 World Preliminary Round, and will not be afraid of the No. 1 seed team psychologically.
Although Lebanon is a fairly strong team in the fourth bracket, far above teams such as Indonesia, the results of the national football team against Lebanon in history are crushing. For example, in the 2011 Asian Cup qualifiers, the national football team once beat Lebanon home and away. However, given that Lebanon's strength was still lacking at that time, the record of the confrontation does not tell the whole story. In the last World Preliminary Tournament, Lebanon performed strongly in the round of 40 and successfully reached the round of 12, but finally ranked at the bottom of Group A, with only one victory, objectively speaking, such a record is not much different from the national football team. Therefore, on the whole, Lebanon's current strength should be slightly weaker than the national team, and they may also become the biggest spoilers in the group stage.
Tajikistan is reaching the main draw of the Asian Cup for the first time and, like Lebanon, is a team that has improved greatly in recent years. Historically, the national football team faced Central Asian teams, except for Uzbekistan, the rest of the opponents were "not daunted", so when facing Tajikistan, the psychological level will not fall behind.
Therefore, if the national football team can play its strength normally, in theory, even if it loses to Qatar, it still has a good chance of winning Lebanon and Tajikistan, and 6 points is enough to ensure that it qualifies; Even if you can't finish second in the group, as long as you make sure you don't lose two or more games, you can hope to advance to the third place in the group with the best results. Overall, the chance of qualifying should exceed 50%.
However, the test of the Asian Cup has always officially begun in the knockout stage.
In the last Asian Cup, the national football team stopped in the first round of the knockout round, and we will wait and see whether it can go further this time.