From the evening of April 16th to the early morning of the 17th, Beijing time, the first round of the U23 Asian Cup ended at the same time, with China's Olympic Games losing 0-1 to Japan's Olympic Games, South Korea's Olympic Games defeating the United Arab Emirates' Olympic Games 1-0, and Iraq's Olympic Games losing 0-2 to Thailand's Olympic Games.
China Olympic Games 0-1 Japan
This is the second time the two teams have met after the 2017 qualifiers, and now the difference in strength between the two teams is obvious, and the Chinese team is generally not favored.
Facing Japan, the national Olympic team conceded a goal in the opening 8 minutes, the defense was useless, Yamada Kaede completed a cross, Matsuki Jiusheng outflanked and scored, Japan 1-0 got off to a dream start. In the 17th minute, Japanese defender Takaya Nishio elbowed Jia Feifei without the ball and was directly sent off by the referee, and the National Olympic Games began to play one more person. In the 38th minute, Tao Qianglong's long-range shot from the edge of the penalty area hit the crossbar and failed to help the National Olympic equalizer.
Entering the second half, the National Olympic Games made continuous substitution adjustments, but they gained little. In the 46th minute, Xie Wenneng had a single chance to push and was saved, missing a great opportunity. In the 74th minute, Hu Hetao took a corner kick directly to the goal and was held up by the opponent's goalkeeper. In the 88th minute, coach Cheng Yaodong asked Yu Jinyong, who was a goalkeeper, to come on as a guest striker, but in the end, the National Olympic Games still lost by one goal.
Statistics show that when the National Olympic Games played one more person for a long time, the possession rate was 61%, the shots on goal were 10 to 7 and the shots on target were 6 to 4, and the corner kick opportunities were 6 to 4.
According to statistics, since the National Olympic Games participated in the U23 Asian Cup, they have lost 12 of their 13 games, and only won 1 game, which has to be traced back to 2018, and has suffered 6 consecutive defeats in the group stage since then.
South Korea 1-0 UAE
This is the first time the two teams have met in the Under-23 Asian Cup, and South Korea have not been able to assemble the strongest squad and are still going all out to win the title, the last time they won the championship was four years ago.
In this game, South Korea has the absolute upper hand. In the 13th minute, Li Kangxi's long-range shot was saved by the opponent's goalkeeper. In the 18th minute, Hwang Jae-won shot from a distance popped up at the neutral post, and then Ahn Jae-joon broke the goal and was blown offside. In the 41st minute, Bai Shangxun's long-range shot was also confiscated by the opponent's goalkeeper.
In the second half, South Korea continued to lay siege to the UAE backline. In the 70th minute, Yan Zhicheng's close-range header was also wide and missed a good opportunity. In the 94th minute, Lee Yongjun scored with a header to help South Korea complete the 1-0 stunner and win the opening goal.
Iraq 0-2 Thailand
As the inaugural champions of the tournament, Iraq's strength has declined in recent years, and there is no contention for the title, and Thailand is aiming for all three points in the first game, but the Southeast Asian team has completed an upset.
In the whole game, Iraq had more than 55% possession and more than 20 shots on goal, but it couldn't attack for a long time, and Thailand played an efficient attack.
In the 26th minute of the first half, Varys scored to help Thailand lead 1-0, and then in the 65th minute of the second half, Waris took a corner kick and assisted Tilasha to score with a header to help Thailand extend the score 2-0. After that, Thailand maintained a two-goal lead until the end of the game, and finally won the upset.