The 2001 Chinese Olympic team (U23 national football team) faced the 6th U23 Asian Cup in Doha, Qatar on the afternoon of April 22 local time (Beijing time on the evening of the 22nd), and the last opponent of the United Arab Emirates Olympic team in the group stage of the Asian final stage of the men's football qualifiers for the Paris Olympic Games. With the goals of Xie Wenneng and Liu Zhurun, the Chinese Olympic team won a thrilling 2-1 victory over the opponent, thus ending the team's historical mission with a victory and retaining its dignity.
This victory is also the second victory of the Chinese U23 men's football team in five U23 Asian Cup trips. After the competition, the Chinese Olympic team will leave Doha in the early morning of the 23rd local time to return to China, and the whole team will be disbanded on the spot after returning to Beijing on the afternoon of the 23rd, Beijing time.
In the first two rounds of the group stage, the Chinese Olympic team lost 0-1 to the Japanese Olympic team and 0-2 to the South Korean Olympic team, thus missing the group qualification one round ahead of schedule and completely ending the Paris Olympics. The final round of the group stage against the UAE Olympic team became the final battle of the Chinese Olympic team to end its historical mission. Both head coach Cheng Yaodong and the entire team are very eager to end this trip to Doha with a victory.
Compared with the previous round of games, there was only one personnel adjustment in the starting lineup of the Chinese Olympic team in this round, and Li Hao replaced Huang Zihao as the team's starting goalkeeper in this game. As in the previous two rounds, the Chinese Olympic team still played very actively in this game. In the 6th minute of the game, the UAE Olympic team scored a goal on a counterattack, but the Lebanese referee Yahya on duty determined that the goal was offside after VAR technology intervened. The Chinese Olympic team, which escaped the catastrophe, has become more and more courageous since then.
In the 24th minute, the Chinese Olympic team took a tactical corner kick, the ball touched the body of the opposing player and then changed direction and popped up, and Xie Wenneng, who was inserted into the penalty area, scored the first goal of the Chinese Olympic team in this tournament. The goal came more than six years after the Chinese U23 team last scored in the competition. In the final round of the group stage of the 3rd U23 Asian Cup in January 2018, the Chinese U23 team vs the Qatar U23 team, Yao Junsheng, a 1995 U23 national football player, scored a goal against his opponent.
In the 38th minute of the game, the ball shot by Baihram hit the arm of the opposing player Khalid. Yahya was the first to award a penalty and showed Khalid a yellow card. But then he intervened through VAR technology and finally determined that Khalid had handballed the ball unintentionally, cancelling the penalty and cancelling the latter's yellow card.
In the 5th minute of stoppage time in the first half, the defender of the UAE Olympic team played with fire and passed the ball back, which was cut off by Liu Zhurun, who burst into the opponent's penalty area and scored the second goal of the Chinese Olympic team.
After entering the second half, the UAE Olympic team stepped up their attack. In the 48th minute, the UAE Olympic team Faci, who burst into the penalty area, stopped the ball on his chest and shot lightly to save a point for his team. Since then, the UAE Olympic team has repeatedly created dangerous attacks. In the 60th minute of the game, Cheng Yaodong, the coach of the Chinese Olympic team, arranged for Liu Haofan to replace Ruan Qilong, trying to stabilize the defense. However, due to factors such as excessive physical energy consumption, the defense line of the Chinese Olympic team has been shrinking. In the 77th minute, Abrahan and Eiffelding replaced Liu Zhurun and Tao Qianglong respectively, but the team's defensive pressure was not eased. In the 80th minute, Li Hao saved a direct free kick shot by the opposing player. After entering the stoppage time stage in the second half, Du Yuezheng and Zhu Yue replaced Bai Helamu and Xie Wenneng respectively, who were exhausted.
After a thrilling 9 minutes of stoppage time, the Chinese Olympic team finally won 2-1, thus ending the team's historic mission with dignity.
Text/Beiqing Sports Xiao Yun