The U17 Asian Cup hosted by Thailand continued, with the Saudi Arabia men's team beating Tajikistan men's team 2-0 in Group C, winning two consecutive games and accumulating six points, qualifying one round earlier, while South Korea also advanced to the last eight round. Yang Chen's Chinese team, which only accumulated one point after two rounds of winless games, fell to the bottom of the group and was on the verge of elimination.
As the runner-up of the last edition, Tajikistan's squad has been changed, but the overall strength is not strong. Saudi Arabia is different, with two titles and an 11th participation, after the qualifiers and warm-up matches showed very strong strength, and was also one of the favorites to win this Asian Cup.
In the first round of the group stage, Saudi Arabia beat Australia 2-0 to get off to the opener, while Tajikistan drew 1-1 with the Chinese men's team, the two teams have never met before, so the two sides are relatively unfamiliar.
In the end, Saudi Arabia won 2-0 against Tajikistan thanks to two goals in the 63rd and 88th minutes, and the team won two consecutive games and accumulated six points to remain at the top of the group.
Earlier, the Chinese men's football team met again with Australia, their opponents in the qualifying stage, and the two teams played a goal battle, scoring a total of 8 goals, including 6 goals in the first half, and finally the Chinese men's team lost 3-5, unable to stage a super comeback, while suffering 2 rounds without a win, only 1 point to qualify.
At this point, Saudi Arabia qualified one round early, Australia ranked second with three points, Tajikistan and China men's football team with one point together, the latter reduced to the bottom of the group on goal difference.
In the final round, the Chinese men's football team played Saudi Arabia, in addition to having to win by a big score, it was also necessary to hope that Australia would not win against Tajikistan to have any hope of qualifying.
At present, the two rounds of group stage in Group A and Group B are also over, with hosts Thailand winning 2 consecutive wins to accumulate 6 points after defeating Malaysia, and Yemen beating Laos with 6 points from 2 consecutive wins, relying on goal difference advantage to beat Thailand to top the ranking, and the two teams also joined hands to qualify one round earlier.
In Group B, South Korea beat Afghanistan 4-0 in this round, due to Iran's 0-0 draw with Qatar, leaving South Korea in first place with 6 points, 5 points ahead of third-placed Qatar, and qualified one round earlier.
The eight finals of this Asian Cup have confirmed 4 places, namely Thailand, Yemen, Saudi Arabia, South Korea, of which Australia and Iran are very close, and China, Qatar and Tajikistan, which have only 1 point in 2 rounds, are still hopeful of qualifying. In addition, Japan, Uzbekistan, Vietnam and India in Group D will face each other on the next match day.