The U23 Asian Cup officially kicked off in Qatar, and the U23 Asian Cup is also a qualifier for the Paris Olympics, with the Chinese Olympic team being divided into the Super Death Group, along with Japan, South Korea and the United Arab Emirates. For the National Olympic Games, being assigned to this group has no pressure to advance at all, because the strength of the National Olympic Games is at the bottom of the group, and it is a high probability to be eliminated, but in the first round of the game, the National Olympic team almost broke out in the upset.
In the first round of matchmaking, China will face the seeded team of the group, Japan, who reached the semi-finals of the last U23 Asian Cup. The beginning of this game is also developing in favor of the Japanese National Olympic Games, only 8 minutes into the opening, the goal of the Chinese National Olympic Games was penetrated, Matsuki Jiusheng scored in front of the goal, the National Olympic Games suffered a blow to the head, but in the 16th minute, there was a red card on the field, Nishio Takaya was sent off by the referee for deliberately elbowing Jia Feifei, and the National Olympic Games played one more person on the field and began to besiege the Japanese National Olympics.
However, the Chinese Olympic team has been scoreless on the field, and at the end of the first half, Tao Qianglong cut inside the front of the penalty area and hit the crossbar and almost equalized. And Baihelamu's header almost broke the goal, and Zhu Yue's heavy bombardment on the edge of the penalty area was saved by the Japanese goalkeeper. At the beginning of the second half, Xie Wen, who came on as a substitute, could get a single chance, but unfortunately did not score, and then the National Olympic Games never got a decent opportunity again, and finally the Chinese National Olympic Games lost with a score of 0-1 and suffered a black start.
In the same group, the South Korean Olympic team played against the United Arab Emirates National Olympic Games, in the game, the South Korean team dominated the possession, reaching 73%, with 15 shots on goal and 3 shots on target, while the UAE team had only 27% possession and 0 shots on target from 3 shots on goal. South Korea's furious attack was never able to break the deadlock, and South Korea's two goals were blown away until injury time, when South Korea took advantage of a corner kick opportunity and scored the winner with a header from Lee Young-jun, and finally South Korea won 1-0 against the United Arab Emirates and won the red opener.
In the second round, the Chinese Olympic Games will play against the South Korean Olympic Games, judging from the head-to-head records of the two teams, the record of the National Olympic Games in the past 6 times against the South Korean Olympic Games is 1 draw and 5 losses, completely defeated, the most recent meeting is in the 1/4 finals of the 2023 Hangzhou Asian Games, when the National Olympic Games occupied the home advantage, but still lost to the South Korean team with a score of 0-2 and missed the semifinals, in the game Hong Hyun Seok and Song Min-kyun each scored a goal.
For the Chinese Olympic Games, in the first round, when they played one more person and besieged Japan for a long time, they failed to score and missed the best moment to grab points. This makes the prospects for the promotion of the Chinese Olympic Games very unfavorable, and in the second round of facing the nemesis South Korea, if the Chinese Olympic Games lose again, they will be eliminated from the knockout round one round ahead of schedule.
In the history of the U23 Asian Cup, the Chinese Olympic team has only participated in 4 sessions, with a record of 1 win and 12 losses, and the record is miserable. In this year's U23 Asian Cup, the Chinese Olympic team recruited as many as 10 players from the U20 national youth team to join the U23 national football team, because the domestic U23 talent was out of file, and there were no suitable players who could only be recruited from the youth team.
For the Chinese Olympic Games, the strength of the opponents in the three groups is very strong and has a high training value, especially those players who skip the level to participate can gain competition experience, which is very useful for the next Olympic Games qualifiers. At 21 o'clock in the evening of April 19, Beijing time, the National Olympic Games will play against the South Korean National Olympic Team, and CCTV5 will broadcast the game live at that time.