The Chinese men's football team will compete at 21 o'clock to rank first in Asia, win = qualify, Cheng Yaodong made a statement!
At 21 o'clock in the evening on April 16, Beijing time, the Chinese men's football team will usher in the first group stage of its U23 Asian Cup, and our opponent is the favorite Japanese team to win the championship. Therefore, for the Chinese team, our first game is an out-and-out decisive battle, if we can beat the opponent in an upset, then the obstacle to our group qualification will be completely cleared!
In this year's U23 Asian Cup, the Chinese team's luck can be said to be extremely bad, in the group draw, the Chinese team in the fourth pot was divided into a "super death group", the same group includes Japan, South Korea and the United Arab Emirates. In the latest FIFA rankings, Japan is ranked 18th, the highest in Asia. South Korea are ranked 23rd and third in Asia, while the UAE are slightly lower in 67th and 9th in Asia.
On the other hand, the Chinese men's football team, due to the sluggish performance in the Asian Cup and the World Preliminaries, the Chinese team's ranking has continued to fall, and in the latest rankings, the Chinese team has dropped to 88th, only 13th in Asia. If you just look at the world rankings, then the Chinese team is the weakest team in this group without any suspense, and it is tantamount to a fool's dream to break through from the group stage and win the top three in the Asian Cup and enter the Olympic Games!
However, in the previous warm-up matches, the performance of the Chinese team still brought a lot of hope to everyone. Facing Qatar, Malaysia and Jordan, the Chinese U23 men's football team won all of them, and won a rare three-game winning streak. Therefore, in the U23 age group, the Chinese men's football team still has a certain competitiveness, if it can make a good start and snatch 3 points from the Japanese team, then the Chinese team will most likely be able to get the top two in the group, and the team will enter the top 8 of the U23 Asian Cup for the first time in history!
At the pre-match press conference that ended not long ago, Cheng Yaodong, the head coach of the Chinese team, said: "In the first game, I hope the players can calm down, play their own level and mental outlook, and achieve the desired result. The overall level of the Japanese team is definitely better than ours, but we have also made some targeted preparations according to their situation, the opponents in this group are very strong, we are both difficult and hopeful, of course the difficulties are definitely greater!"
According to the latest program list released by CCTV, for the opening match of the U23 Asian Cup of the Chinese men's football team, CCTV5, the largest sports media in China, will still broadcast live, hoping that this young national football team can bring us news of victory!