The group stage of the U23 Asian Cup has ended, and the top eight teams of this tournament have all been produced. South Korea, Japan, Qatar, Indonesia, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Uzbekistan and Vietnam stood out from the 16 teams and made it to the knockout rounds, and they will also make a final fight for the championship trophy!
But what Chinese fans are most concerned about is definitely the performance of the Chinese team. Unfortunately, in this competition, the Chinese team was divided into a "super death group", which included the Japanese team, the South Korean team and the United Arab Emirates team. Among them, the Japanese team and the South Korean team are the favorites to win the championship in this tournament, and the Chinese team must squeeze out one of them if they want to qualify.
However, the performance of the Chinese men's football team is still remarkable. In the first round of the game, facing the Japanese team, one of the opponent's players was sent off with a red card early, and the Chinese team also rarely suppressed the Japanese team and attacked the opponent's goal for a whole game. However, due to the players' poor ability to grasp the opportunity, the Chinese team still lost 0-1 to the Japanese team, and unfortunately suffered a black start. Immediately after facing the South Korean team, the Chinese team still created a lot of scoring opportunities, but unfortunately the problem of "weak forward" has also been plaguing the national football team. After missing a number of single opportunities, the Chinese team unfortunately lost 0-2 to the South Korean team and was eliminated in the first round!
In the last round of the battle of honor, the Chinese team finally broke the goal drought, and with the goals of Xie Wenneng and Liu Zhurun, the Chinese team took an early 2-0 lead. In the second half of the game, the UAE team launched a crazy counterattack, and the Chinese team withstood the opponent's onslaught with a tenacious defense. In the end, the Chinese team defeated the UAE team 2-1, ending the team's 2,289-day goal drought in the U23 Asian Cup, and winning again in the U23 Asian Cup after 6 years!
With the U23 Asian Cup group stage all over, the Chinese team's rankings were also released, and we ended up in 9th place, second only to the eight teams that qualified. The biggest contribution of this ranking to Chinese football is that in the qualifiers for the next U23 Asian Cup, we will participate in the draw as the first team, which also greatly increases the probability of the Chinese team advancing to the main competition!
After the end of this U23 Asian Cup, the reputation of the previously questioned local coach Cheng Yaodong also ushered in a reversal. According to the latest report of "Football News", Cheng Yaodong's entire coaching staff has been under a lot of pressure for four years, after the qualifiers, the Football Association asked him if he would like to continue to coach the team, under heavy pressure, Cheng Yaodong still chose to face the difficulties and continue to lead the team forward. He was able to lead the team to a victory in the main match, which is already a successful completion of the task.
For this local coach, many U23 internationals have expressed their recognition, and perhaps in the near future, Cheng Yaodong can be reused and return to the national coaching position!