On January 22, 2024, Beijing time, the two matches of Group A of the Qatar Asian Cup will start at the same time. The match between the national football team and the host Qatar has also become the focus of attention across Asia. Due to two consecutive draws in the previous two group games, the national football team can only win this game to qualify for the knockout round. So at the pre-match press conference, Jankovic also said that the national football team would win this game against the host.
However, after the first two group stage draws, fans have been immune to Yang Shuai's "beautiful words". Although Qatar made a large rotation of nine players in the starting line-up, the attacking duo of Afif and Ali were both on the bench. But teams that play in an all-substitution framework tend to have more momentum.
It is worth mentioning that Jankovic complied with the "public opinion" in this campaign, pressed the top striker Wu Lei of the national football team and Dai Weijun, who had not performed well before, on the bench, put Wei Shihao and Lin Liangming into the starting lineup, and replaced Xu Xin with the old captain Wu Xi who had not recovered from injury for a short time. And this change in the national football team has also achieved good results after the opening.
Compared with Wu Lei, who has a strong sense of running but lacks the ability to dribble the ball, Wei Shihao can form an effective cooperation with his teammates in the front court. Driven by him, Lin Liangming and Liu Binbin also played well. In addition to Wei Shihao, Zhang Yuning also showed a different state from the previous two games, and played an important fulcrum role in the front court.
In the second half of the first half, the national football team also created two excellent scoring opportunities. But Wei Shihao's close shot hit the goal was hit by the opponent's Qatari goalkeeper Saad Sib. After that, Wei Shihao deflected the ball in the penalty area again and missed the opportunity to score at half-time. Although Wei Shihao, who has recently recovered from injury, has performed well, he has obviously not found his best form.
In the second half, the Qatar team, which was replaced by Afif, Haidos, Janehi and Jassim, gradually adapted to the rhythm of the national football team. In the backfield of the national football team, Janech and Youssef began to change positions frequently, constantly exposing the ribs of the national football team. Fortunately, the defensive players of the national football team actively filled in and resolved many dangerous situations in the defense area.
It is worth mentioning that Qatari goalkeeper Zakaria, who came on as a substitute in the second half, was pushed to the eyebrow bone by Lin Liangming. Zakaria, who had a large bag swollen out of his right eye, was immediately replaced by another third goalkeeper, Barsham. As a result, the Qatari team also set a record, becoming the first team in the history of the Asian Cup to have three goalkeepers in a single game.
And just after the small episode of changing the goalkeeper, the substitutes Afif and Haydos immediately completed the corner kick link. The latter faced the long pass sent by the former, and directly blasted a wonderful volley world wave, blasting away the city guarded by Yan Junling, helping Qatar take a 1-0 lead in the 66th minute.
As the score became behind, the self-confidence of the national football team was also greatly destroyed. Even if Wu Lei and Tan Long were replaced, the national football team failed to replicate the offensive in the first half in the remaining game time. Before the end of the regular season, Jiang Shenglong helped the national football team score a goal. But before Liu Yang crossed the ball, the ball had crossed the bottom line, and the ball was ruled invalid.
With a whistle from the referee, the game ended. In the third group stage of this Asian Cup, the national football team still did not break the curse of not scoring and lost to Qatar, the defending champion of the tournament, with a score of 0-1. In the other group stage at the same time, Tajikistan defeated Lebanon with a score of 2-1, overtook the national football team in points, and got the chance to directly advance to the knockout round, and the national football team with only 2 points could only be relegated to the third place in the group.
Although the third round of matches in the other groups has not yet started, it will be quite difficult to get into the third place of the four best teams with two points. We can't help but sigh at the impermanence of fate, if Wei Shihao can appear in the first two group games, if Zhang Yuning's state can come earlier, has the national football team's goal already come, why has it come to this point?