On the evening of April 16, Beijing time, the U23 Asian Cup group stage entered the second match day, and the Chinese U23 men's football team made its debut.
The U23 Asian Cup is also a qualifier for the Paris Olympics, with the top two teams in the group qualifying and the top three in the tournament qualifying.
The U23 national football team is in the same group as Japan, South Korea, and the United Arab Emirates, which can be described as a group of death in the true sense.
The total value of the Chinese team is 3.05 million euros, the United Arab Emirates is 7.73 million, South Korea is 9.67 million, and Japan is 12.6 million.
Japan U23 not only lacks a large number of foreign players, but also the J League is in full swing, and each club is only willing to let three people participate in the U23 Asian Cup at most, and the strength of the Japanese team has suffered a serious loss. However, one statistic of the national football team U23 ranks first among all participating teams, that is, the average height of 1.83 meters.
In just 8 minutes of the opening game, the Japanese team broke through the defense of the national football team U23, and Daiki Sekine passed back on the right side, and Kaede Yamada crossed with his left foot to Matsuki Jiusheng and scored the goal.
After the goal, Japan still dominated the game. In the 17th minute, the situation on the field changed abruptly, and Jia Feifei fell to the ground in pain. VAR intervened, and the referee went to the sidelines to watch back, and slow motion showed that Japan's main central defender, Ryuya Nishio, hit Jia Feifei in the neck.
The referee decisively showed a red card, and the Chinese team played 11 to 10 in the remaining time.
In the 24th minute, the Chinese team finally completed the first shot of the whole team, right-back Zhu Yue inserted into the penalty area, and the header was easily confiscated by the goalkeeper.
Ten minutes later, the Chinese team won another corner, and Baihelam shot high with some passivity, and the Chinese team's corner kick was able to continue to create a threat.
In the 37th minute, the Chinese team almost equalized, Tao Qianglong shot from outside the penalty area, and the ball hit the crossbar and popped up, which was quite a pity.
As the game progressed, the Chinese team occupied an absolute advantage on the field, and the disadvantage in numbers made the Japanese team take care of one or the other.
In the 41st minute, Yang Zihao crossed from the side, Baihelamu hit the goal with a header, and was saved by the goalkeeper bravely, Tao Qianglong outflanked the supplementary shot, and missed the opportunity.
In the first half of the game, the Chinese team had 61% possession and 7-3 shots on goal, completely suppressing the Japanese team. After halftime, Cheng Yaodong made substitution adjustments, and Xie Wenneng and Du Yuezheng came on as substitutes.
As soon as he debuted, Xie Wenneng got a great opportunity, but unfortunately his shot was confiscated by the goalkeeper, and it was Du Yuezheng who passed the ball.
For the next 25 minutes, the Chinese team seemed to have physical problems, and did not have a single shot on goal until the 73rd minute.
Hu Hetao's corner kick was directed directly to the goal, and the Japanese goalkeeper struggled to lift the ball off the line, but the official did not count the attack in the range of the shot.
For the rest of the second half, the Chinese team was still unable to speed up. In the 88th minute, Cheng Yaodong replaced the substitute goalkeeper and played the position of center forward on the field. In the end, China's Olympic Games lost 0-1 to Japan in their U23 Asian Cup debut.
It is worth noting that according to official statistics from the AFC, the Chinese Olympic Games had 10 shots on goal, of which only 3 shots were completed in the second half, and the Japanese Olympic Games, which had one less person, completed 3 shots in the second half. In the next game, the opponent of the National Olympic Games is the South Korean team, and the National Olympic Games ushered in a life-and-death battle.