Korean media: Japan, known as the "first candidate for the championship", is actually just a "paper tiger"
South Korean media "Korea Sports" said that before the Asian Cup, the Japanese national football team received high expectations, such as "the number one candidate to win the Asian Cup" and "the team is full of superstars".
Because they beat Germany and Turkey in the warm-up matches before the Asian Cup, they are in very good form, and they have European players in all positions and great squad depth.
However, when we opened the lid, it turned out that they were an underdog, losing to Iraq in the group stage, advancing to the round of 16 as group runners-up, and meeting Iran in the quarter-finals.
Japanese football only won against the so-called "weak teams", losing to all the teams that were considered slightly stronger.
In the quarterfinals of the 2023 AFC Asian Cup against Iran, Japan conceded a goal in stoppage time, which led to the reversal of the team.
Japan was eliminated in the quarter-finals. This is very different from the image of the top favorite team in the Asian Cup, which was highlighted by the world's major media before the game.
The high expectations of the fans before the start of the tournament are well founded. That's because they shocked the world with back-to-back victories in the warm-up matches from June last year to the eve of the Asian Cup, not only beating the underdogs, but also winning 4-1 and 4-2 in Germany and Turkey respectively.
In addition, there are many players who have started in top European teams, such as Kao Mikasa (Brighton), Endo (Liverpool), Tomiyasu Kenhiro (Arsenal), Kubo Kenei (Real Sociedad), etc., most of them are European club players, and the 26-man squad is strong in itself, and even if someone is injured, it will not cause any harm.
However, after entering the Asian Cup, they had a shaky start to the first round of the group stage, winning just 4-2 against Vietnam and failing to top the group with a 2-1 defeat against Iraq in the second game. They finished second and qualified for the round of 16, but luckily met Bahrain in the round of 16 – South Korea failed to top Group E and Bahrain topped the group.
To put it mildly, Bahrain is not a strong team in Asia. Although they unexpectedly finished first in Group E, they were the team that took first place due to the poor performance of the Korean team. However, when they faced their "real rivals" Iran in the quarter-finals, they were reversed. Despite the fact that Iran's key player, Mehdi Taremi, did not play due to suspension, they lost.
In the end, Japan were eliminated in the quarterfinals of the Asian Cup, defeating weak rivals Vietnam, Indonesia and Bahrain, but losing to strong rivals Iraq and Iran. Japan is only a "weak team", and it can only be regarded as a paper tiger when it is weak and strong, and it is not strong when it is strong.