Beiqing: The national football team should make every effort to advance to the round of 18, otherwise it may overturn in the Asian Cup qualifiers

According to the "Beijing Youth Daily" reporter wrote an article to analyze this Asian Cup, at the same time, Beiqing said that the national football team should make every effort to advance to the top 18, otherwise it may overturn in the Asian Cup qualifiers.

On the evening of January 29, local time, in the 6th minute of stoppage time in the first half of the Asian Cup 1/8 finals Qatar team VS Palestine, Qatar captain Haydos equalized with a volley from outside the penalty area, thus scoring the 100th goal of this Cup. As of more than halfway through the 1/8 finals, 101 goals have been scored in a total of 40 games in this Cup, with an average of 2.53 goals per game, slightly less than the 2.55 goals per game in the entire 2019 Asian Cup. As the knockout rounds deepen, the competition in the remaining rounds and matches of this cup will also increase. The total number of goals scored and the average number of goals per game in this Asian Cup may be lower than in the previous competition. It has to be said that the gap in strength between the Asian Cup brigades is gradually narrowing. Such a situation also means that the Chinese team, which has been eliminated from the group, must play well in the round of 36 of the World Preliminary Tournament, which will rekindle the flames of war. Once they fail to make it to the round of 18, they will not be able to "go through" to the next Asian Cup. It is difficult to break through from the Asian Cup qualifiers.

After the group stage of this Asian Cup, the AFC began to count the relevant data of the event. On the evening of the 29th local time, after the 1/8 finals of Ka and Ba, the AFC released a goal data. It shows that Haydos' goal that night was the 100th goal of this Asian Cup. As of that evening local time, a total of 40 matches have been played in this cup (36 group stage games, 4 1/8 finals), and each team has scored a total of 101 goals, with an average of 2.53 goals per game. The data also shows that a total of 87 goals have been scored in 36 group games, with an average of 2.42 goals per game. Compared to the 2019 Asian Cup, which has accumulated 130 goals (51 games) and averaged 2.55 goals per game, the average number of goals per game so far in this tournament is slightly less.

It should be noted that during the last Asian Cup in the United Arab Emirates, the North Korean team, which was eliminated from the group, conceded a total of 14 goals in the three group games, with a goal difference of minus 13, tying the previous record for the most goals conceded in the group stage set by Uzbekistan. In addition, Yemen became the only team in the tournament to have a "triple zero" (zero wins, zero goals, zero points). Although there are also "three-zero" teams such as the Indian team in this tournament, its minus 6 goal difference figure is still better than the minus 13 of the North Korean team and the minus 10 of the Yemen team in the previous tournament.

Although there are still 11 unplayed matches in this Asian Cup (as of the 29th local time), because most of the remaining knockout matches are strong conversations between opponents with similar strengths, it will be more difficult for each team to score goals against each other.

In the 4 1/8 finals of this Asian Cup, except for the Australian team that eliminated the Indonesian team that entered the knockout stage for the first time with 4 goals, the scores of the remaining 3 games are relatively close, and the maximum score difference in regular game time is only 1 goal. Among them, as the "new ding" of the event, the Tajikistan team finally entered the top 8 through a penalty shootout after a 1-1 draw with the old powerhouse UAE team in 120 minutes. In the first two-strong matchup in West Asia on the 29th, the Jordanian team and the 2007 Asian Cup winner Iraq alternated the lead until the Jordanian team eliminated the opponent with two goals in stoppage time. Although the Qatar team has the home advantage, it eliminated the opponent with difficulty through a penalty after conceding 1 goal first.

The remaining 4 matches in the 1/8 finals are: Japan vs. Bahrain, Iran vs. Syria, Saudi Arabia vs. South Korea, and Uzbekistan vs. Thailand. Which of these games is not a match between the two sides, and whichever team goes one step further will face a stronger challenge next. The desire for championship titles will make them more cautious.

Among the four teams that have reached the top 8, in addition to the two seeded teams of Qatar and Australia, there are also Jordan and Tajikistan, a second-tier team, and Tajikistan, a fourth-tier team. In addition, Pot 3 teams such as Bahrain and Syria are also expected to join the top 8. Combined with the matches that have ended, it is not difficult to judge that the gap in strength between the teams in each group of this Asian Cup is narrowing. Although the six seeded teams are still collectively "online", on the whole, the results of each team and their bracket status may not complement each other.

By the end of the first four matches of the 1/8 finals, the tournament had attracted more than 1.06 million spectators to the stadium, breaking the record of 1.04 million for the largest total audience in a single tournament set by the 2004 Asian Cup. The reason for the record data is not only that the match was scheduled in Qatar, the host of the last World Cup, but also has a lot to do with the fierce competition and improved spectacle of the game.

Although the Chinese team has been eliminated from the group and returned home early, the impact of this Asian Cup on the team is huge. On the one hand, it is inevitable that the international ranking of the Chinese team will fall further after losing to this Asian Cup with an unprecedentedly bad record of zero goals and zero wins; on the other hand, the Asian Cup brigades, especially the teams in the third and fourth pots, have generally shown an upward momentum in terms of technical level. As international player Wei Shihao said: "Every team is improving, only we are standing still. "This means that the Chinese team's opponents in the Asian Cup or Asian football competition are increasing unabated.

According to the competition rules determined by the AFC, the 2027 Asian Cup will maintain the size of 24 teams. Among them, the teams that enter the third stage of the Asian zone of the 2026 World Preliminaries, that is, the top 18, can directly get tickets to the next Asian Cup. There are 12 in this Asian Cup, and half of the places are directly generated through the top 12 of the Qatar World Preliminaries, so the rate of remaining teams competing for tickets to the Asian Cup through the qualifiers is relatively higher than that of the next one. In other words, if the Chinese team intends to go straight to the main round of the 2027 Asian Cup, it should go all out to qualify for the round of 18. Otherwise, they will be forced to participate in the Asian Cup qualifiers. And the team, with its current technical level, also has the possibility of "overturning" in the qualifiers.