On the evening of November 14, Beijing time, in the second round of the group stage of the U17 World Cup (also known as the World Junior Championship), in a game in Group D, the Japanese men's football team lost 1-3 to the Argentine men's football team, and at the same time, the Iranian men's football team was defeated by the England men's football team 1-2, and the Asian 2 teams won all from the first round to the second round.
In recent years, the level of the Japanese men's football team has become higher and higher, the national team has reached the world's quasi-first-class level, and the national youth and national youth have also steadily improved, and they have the strength to compete with strong teams.
According to statistics, Japan's best result at the World Junior Championships is reaching the quarterfinals twice in 1993 and 2019, and this time the goal is to advance to the semi-finals. Despite being drawn in a Group of Death, Japan withstood the pressure to upset European giants Poland 1-0 in the first round to secure a crucial three points, and now face a very important match in the second round against South American giants Argentina, who have won three third-place finishes.
In the first round of the group stage, Argentina lost 1-2 to Sergal, so the second round turned into a battle of life and death.
Facing Japan, which did not concede a goal in the first round, Argentina scored two goals in less than 10 minutes in the opening game, and completed a series of lightning goals in the 5th and 8th minutes, directly stunned the Japanese team.
Japan, who had slightly found their form in the game, did not knock on Argentina's goal until the second half. In the 50th minute, Takaoka scored a goal, and the score became 1-2, and it was Takaoka who scored in the last game of Japan's one-goal victory over Poland.
After that, Japan continued to intensify their attack and tried to equalize, but in the end they were unsuccessful, and conceded another goal in stoppage time to lose 3-1 to Argentina.
In another game in the same group, the Sergal men's football team defeated the Polish men's football team 4-1, won the opening 2 consecutive wins, accumulated 6 points to continue to rank first, and scored 1 more point to qualify.
At present, Japan and Argentina are tied on three points, and both have hopes of advancing to the knockout stage with a win in the final round, with Japan against Sergal and Argentina against Poland.
Iran, also from Asia, did not continue the performance of the first round reversal of Brazil in this round, and finally led by one goal, but was defeated by England in the second half and lost 1-2. Brazil thrashed New Caledonia 9-0 in the same group, and Iran dropped to third place in the group.
On this night, Japan and Iran lost at the same time and missed out on qualifying for the first round, although a win in the final round would ensure a place to qualify for the knockout round.