On January 22, 2024, Beijing time, the Qatar Asian Cup will usher in a key match in the third round of Group A, with the Chinese men's football team playing against the host Qatar men's football team. For the first two games without scoring a goal and winning two consecutive draws, this battle is not only a battle of honor, but also a veritable battle of life and death. If the desired result cannot be achieved through this campaign, the national football team's Asian Cup journey will not only come to an abrupt end, but even the coach may be dismissed, and the players will also fall into a more negative whirlpool of public opinion. This is by no means a good thing for the national football team, which will usher in the World Preliminary Tournament in 2 months.
Although in extreme cases, even if the national football team loses to Qatar, there is a possibility of advancing to the knockout round as the third in the group, but this possibility is still quite slim. Only by beating Qatar can the national football team not care about the color of the opponent in the same group and the third place in the other groups, and have a chance to qualify from the group. Even if they can't beat the mighty Qatar, the national football team will need to get at least a draw on the hosts to increase the possibility of qualifying from the group.
Compared with the last group game, Jankovic made 3 adjustments to the starting lineup of the national football team, and Wei Shihao, who returned from injury, replaced Wu Lei, who had previously performed poorly, and formed a forward partner with Zhang Yuning. "Lin Huang" Lin Liangming replaced Dai Weijun and served as the team's left forward. Wu Xi, who came off the bench in the last round, returned to the starting line in place of Xu Xin, and formed a double back with Wang Shangyuan.
Before the life-and-death battle, Song Kai, who was the "head" of the Chinese Football Association, also appeared on the national football training ground before the battle, and told the whole team to put down the ideological burden of wanting to win and fear losing in the life-and-death battle, go all out to play their own spiritual outlook, resolutely implement tactical arrangements and give full play to their due technical level. Although he flew to Doha, Qatar before the first game of the national football team, Song Kai never had much contact with the players in order not to interfere with the team's preparations. However, the battle of life and death has come, and Song Kai obviously can't sit still.
At the press conference before the game, the national football coach Jankovic made it clear that the team wants to win this game against the host country and thus advance to the knockout stage of this Asian Cup. Commenting on the complexity of Group A and the chances of qualifying, Jankovic believes the team needs to go all out to win and not need to think about other group rivals and other groups. But after the first two group games, the outside world is already immune to Jankovic's "nice words". To a certain extent, Jankovic's "dripping water" also highlights his nervousness even more.
Compared with the national football team, which is at a life-and-death juncture, Qatar, which has locked the top spot in the group early and has qualified from Group A in advance, has carried out a large-scale rotation of the starting lineup. Stars such as Akram Afif and Moez Ali, who are familiar to Chinese fans, are all sitting on the bench. However, for Qatar's substitutes, this game is also an opportunity to prove their ability. Past experience tells us that teams that play all on the bench tend to burst out with stronger motivation and hard work. The national football team, which has no room for error, is absolutely not to be careless.