The U23 Asian Cup and Olympic Games Qualifiers hosted by Qatar have ended the first round of group stage, Japan, South Korea, Uzbekistan, Saudi Arabia and many favorites to win the championship have all won, and there are also champion teams Iraq overturned, and our Chinese Olympic Games regretted a goal loss, and the performance was not as good as the two Southeast Asian teams Thailand and Vietnam, which were both winners.
A total of 16 teams will compete in the tournament, with the top three teams qualifying for Paris 2024 and the fourth-place finishers competing for the final quota place in the play-offs against Guinea, the fourth team from the African zone.
In the first round of the group stage, there were 7 red cards in 8 games
Since the start of the game, the referee has often pulled out red cards, and there have been three match days. On the first matchday, Australia drew 0-0 with Jordan, with a Jordanian player sent off for a red card, followed by Qatar's 2-0 win over Indonesia, which even had two players red. On the second matchday, Japan also had a red card for the match against the National Olympic Games, and then there was also a red card for Iraq's match against Thailand. Now on the third matchday, Vietnam and Kuwait match, each player is red.
Seven red cards appeared in the first eight games, which shows that the discipline of the players needs to be improved, and it is not ruled out that there will be more red cards in the future, which is more dangerous for the players.
There were 4 upsets in the first round
With the narrowing of the gap in the strength of various teams in Asian football, the advantage of the strong team is not so great, and it also gives the weak team a chance to counterattack.
As the champion of the inaugural tournament, Iraq unexpectedly lost 0-2 to Thailand in the first round, and then the defending champion Saudi Arabia conceded two goals against the third-rate team Tajikistan, which also made the 4-2 winning score look imperfect. South Korea, like Saudi Arabia, had 15 shots on goal and three on target with 73% possession, and finally beat the United Arab Emirates 1-0.
In addition, Australia, which won the fourth place in the last session, did not score a goal in the face of Jordan, which was mediocre, and still played one more player, and finally drew 0-0.
In the last two rounds of the Chinese Olympic Games, 6 points were qualified
The 0-1 defeat to Japan in the first round made the National Olympic Games suffer its first defeat, but fortunately, South Korea only won 1-0 in the face of the United Arab Emirates, so that the group qualifying situation is more variable, and it also gives the National Olympic Games a chance to live.
In the next round, the National Olympic Games against South Korea, Japan against the United Arab Emirates, if the National Olympic Games win the better, and then beat the United Arab Emirates in the final round to accumulate 6 points to qualify steadily, of course, it is extremely difficult to overturn South Korea, and it is also a good result to be able to draw South Korea and get 1 point, when the last round of the big score against the United Arab Emirates, while South Korea lost to Japan, the National Olympic Games can also advance to the knockout round with 4 points in 3 rounds.