On the evening of April 16, Beijing time, in the first round of Group B of the 2024 Qatar U23 Men's Asian Cup, the Chinese Olympic team lost 0-1 to the Japanese team with one more player in most of the time. In the qualifiers for this Olympic Games, the Chinese team is in a group with Japan, South Korea, and the United Arab Emirates, and the qualifying situation is very unoptimistic. In the first game, the Japanese team conceded the first goal in the 8th minute, and the mistake of defense in the penalty area allowed Japanese player Matsuki Jiusheng to easily push the goal. In the 17th minute, there was a change on the field, Japan's Nishio Takaya elbowed the Chinese team's Jia Feifei, the referee showed a red card, and the Chinese team began an 11-10 situation. After that, the numerical advantage of the Chinese team had a couple of good chances, but Tao Qianglong hit the post with a long-range shot in the 38th minute, and Xie Wenneng's solo shot was saved by the Japanese goalkeeper in the 46th minute. At the end of the second half, the head coach of the Chinese team, Cheng Yaodong, sent the 2-meter-tall substitute goalkeeper Jin Yong on the field as a center forward, but the team still failed to break through the opponent's goal.
After the game, Cheng Yaodong admitted that the Japanese team is still much better than his own team, so the overall performance is still satisfied, "According to our plan, Japan is a big part stronger than us, and we focus on counterattacks." We kept playing on the counter-attack after conceding the goal. After playing one more man, we moved the formation forward a bit and created some chances, but unfortunately we didn't take advantage of it, and we are generally satisfied with the players. ”
For playing one more person, the team did not reflect more advantages in the second half, Cheng Yaodong said: "In the second half of the first half, we defended more ideally, suppressed the opponent, and in the second half, we wanted to continue to suppress the opponent with the wing, but the opponent also responded, and as a result, we did not play in the second half, which is our shortcoming." ”
After losing the first game, at 9 p.m. Beijing time on April 19, the Chinese team will face the second opponent in the group stage, the South Korean team.