Fans who follow Chinese football should know that in January next year, the Asian Cup will be held every four years, and the Chinese men's football team will also be back on the road and usher in a head-to-head dialogue with Asia's first-class teams. In order to do a good job in this competition, the Chinese men's football team has already flown to West Asia not long ago, adapting to the local weather, and also starting the final preparations.
And what is indispensable in preparing for war is naturally a duel of real swords and guns. Due to the relatively early assembly of the national football team, the national football team can only select some club teams in the UAE for the first game. After continuous communication, the national football team finally finalized the UAE Second Division team Regional Sports to serve as its first warm-up opponent. The UAE Second Division League is roughly equivalent to our China Second League, so the strength of the regional sports team is naturally a little insufficient, and the Chinese team has rarely found a sense of superiority in the game.
In just the first half of the game, the Chinese men's football team, which was full of firepower, scored four goals in a row and took an early 4-0 lead. Among them, Zhang Yuning, who returned from injury, helped the national football team open the scoring, and then young striker Lin Liangming scored twice in a short period of time, instantly expanding the score. Then Wu Lei, the number one star of the national football team, scored the icing on the cake, and the Chinese team, which broke out collectively among the strikers, completely killed the suspense of the game in just half a game.
Yibian fought again, and head coach Jankovic waved his hand and sent a full bench lineup, announcing the early withdrawal of Mingjin. The somewhat relaxed Chinese team was also scored by the opponent in the second half and saved some face. In the last moments of the game, central defender Jiang Shenglong scored with a header from a corner cross, locking the final score to 5-1. In the end, the Chinese men's football team won a rare 5-1 victory, sweeping away the haze of losing in the world preliminary round last month, and giving fans hope again.
In the Asian Cup group draw, the Chinese team was divided into Group A, which included the host Qatar team, Tajikistan and Lebanon. Judging from the strength on paper, the Chinese team is slightly weaker than the Qatar team, and has a relatively large chance of winning against the remaining two teams. Therefore, it should not be a problem for the national football team to break through from the group stage, and the only suspense is what kind of ranking the national football team can use to enter the subsequent knockout round. If we want to go a little further in this Asian Cup, then we will have to try to win the group and face the best third place in the three groups of C, D and E.
It would be acceptable to finish second in the group, in which case we will play the second place in Group C, and judging by the group, this team is likely to be the United Arab Emirates. However, once we are reduced to the third place in the best group, we will most likely face the bitter Iranian team in the knockout round. In the FIFA rankings, the Iranian team ranks second in Asia, and once they play against them, the national football team's Asian Cup journey may have to come to an end early.
I hope the national football team can create a miracle, and it is time for Chinese football in the trough to recover.