In the last match of the group stage of the U23 Asian Cup, the Chinese men's soccer team won 2-1 with goals from Xie Wenneng and Liu Zhurun, earning their first victory and first goal. But we also ended our tournament journey and went home.
I don't know, this win was the second win in Olympic history in the U23 Asian Cup. The last win dates back six years, which came at the 2018 Asian Cup in China. Wei Shihao, Yang Liyu and Li beat Oman 3-0 in the first round of the group stage before losing their last two matches to Uzbekistan and Qatar and missing out on qualification. At the time, controversial decisions by "famous referee" Faghani made them familiar to Chinese fans. Some believed that the Olympics were divided into the Group of Death, with Japan and South Korea in the same group, and that it would be relatively difficult to compete in the qualifying rounds. However, the team played well against Japan in the face of the opponent's red card, and at least had a chance to score against South Korea.
Goal hero Liu Zhu Run in an interview that winning the game must be very happy, can help the team to score, for himself, is a kind of self-confidence improvement. Summarize the Asian Cup trip, Liu Zhu Run expressed regret, there are also difficult times, and ultimately it is difficult to win. Today's goal is the affirmation of your own.
Ching Yiu Tung's post-match press conference remained a long-winded affair, continuing in the style of previous group games. Despite the 2-1 win, it was too late. After all, two consecutive losses in advance declared ineligible for the Olympics. After the game, Cheng Yaodong that everyone played well, saw some hope, the field is also a little better. We were not affected by the first two losses and adjusted positively, playing tenacious and creating scoring opportunities. Even though we are out of the tournament, we want to thank everyone and the players for their hard work. Our youngest is only 18 years old. I hope the players can better themselves in their future careers.
Cheng Yaodong still believes that it is difficult to advance in the group competition, mainly because the opponents Japan and South Korea are superb teams, which is the direct reason why we failed to advance. There is a gap between our team in all aspects, strength, ability and the Asian teams, and we did not advance at the 2019 U19 Asian Youth Championship. Over the years we have struggled to catch up to the Asian level and there is still a gap between us and Japan and South Korea. From the long post-match speech, we can see that the guidance has not lost confidence, but also actively encourages the youngsters.
