In the early morning of April 17, Beijing time, in the first round of Group B of the U23 Asian Cup, South Korea played against the United Arab Emirates. In the whole game, South Korea scored 3 goals, 2 of which were blown invalid, and finally relied on Li Yongjun's stoppage time to score a goal to defeat the United Arab Emirates 1-0, tied for first place with Japan with 3 points, and the Chinese Olympic Games and the UAE tied for the bottom of the group with 0 points.
As one of the favourites, South Korea were the champions of the 2020 tournament, but only reached the quarter-finals last time. In this tournament, South Korea did not have the opportunity to send the strongest team to attack the championship, because the player's club refused to release him, and coach Hwang Hee-hong bluntly said that he worked hard to overcome the difficulties and did his best to qualify for the 10th consecutive Olympic Games.
South Korea's first opponent is West Asian powerhouse UAE, who have reached the quarter-finals three of their previous four appearances, with the only time they have made it out of the group stage, coming from the last tournament.
Statistically, the two teams have never met in the U23 Asian Cup before, and now they are meeting for the first time.
After the opening, South Korea attacked fiercely, gradually reaching more than 70% possession, and created a number of threats, while the UAE dominated the defensive counter-attack.
In the 13th minute, Li Kangxi's long-distance attack from the periphery of the penalty area was saved by the opponent's goalkeeper.
In the 18th minute, Hwang Jae-won completed a long-range shot at the top of the penalty area, and then Ahn Jae-joon outflanked the goal and was blown offside, and South Korea rejoiced.
In the 41st minute, South Korea's corner kick was cleared, and Baek Sang-hoon tried to shoot from a distance after adjustment, but the ball was confiscated by the opponent's goalkeeper.
In the second half, South Korea tried to open up a favorable situation through substitutions, but to little avail. In the 55th minute, Li Kangxi's header was slightly off. In the 70th minute, Yan Zhicheng's header was also missed. In the 86th minute, Jiang Shangrun scored with a header, but it was ruled invalid because his teammates were offside.
In the 94th minute, Lee Yongjun scored with a header to help South Korea complete the 1-0 stunner and get off to a good start.
An earlier match in the same group was played by the Chinese Olympic team against the Japanese national Olympic team. This is the first time that the two teams have met in the U23 Asian Cup finals, and in the end, the national Olympic team lost to Japan with a score of 0-1 with a score of 0-1 when the national Olympic team played one more game for a long time, and Matsuki scored the only goal of the game.
In this way, South Korea and Japan are tied for the top of the group with 3 points, and the UAE and China are tied for the bottom of the group with 0 points. In the next round of group stage, China will play South Korea and Japan will play the United Arab Emirates.