The Chinese men's soccer team will officially begin their Asian Cup journey on Jan. 13, Beijing time, with their first opponent being mystery masters Tajikistan, followed by Lebanon and hosts Qatar.
The Chinese men's soccer team has now begun their pre-match preparations at their resident hotel in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates. Here, in addition to daily routine training, they will also hold four targeted warm-up matches. After the four warm-up matches, the national soccer team will officially start participating in the Asian Cup in Qatar.
In 20 days, the Chinese men's soccer team will play the Asian Cup. What is the biggest concern for Chinese fans at the moment? Namely, what kind of starting lineup will head coach Jankovic send to the Asian Cup? According to the 26-player list released by the CFA and Jankovic's previous preseason favorites and habits, we can roughly guess Jankovic's main lineup for the Asian Cup. Simple predictions are as follows.
In the goalie position, naturally no one can shake Shanghai goalie Yan Junling. As long as he's not injured or otherwise, he's the starting keeper for the national soccer team. In the backline, Jankovic is expected to field a relatively safe 4-back formation, with Liu Yang, Zhu Chenjie, Jiang Guangtai and decorated veteran Zhang Linmiao as the four heavily-used backline generals. Among them, Zhu Chenjie and Jiang Guangtai will be the double center back combination; Liu Yang and Zhang Linying will be the side backs from left to right.
In the midfield, there is no doubt that the main back of the national football team responsible for intercepting and stealing will be the meritorious captain Wu Xi; the double back combination with Wu Xi should be the strong comeback of the midfield general Wang Qiuming. In front of the double back, it is expected that Wu Lei, Xie Pengfei and Wei Shihao will attack together. Xie Pengfei in the center, Wu Lei and Wei Shihao on both wings. The three of them form a response up front, forming a front attacking group that provides the strongest firepower support for the national soccer team's forward passes and cannonballs.
Up front, unsurprisingly, 35-year-old frontline veteran Tan Long should carry the attacking banner for the national soccer team up front. Zhang Yuning, who has just returned from injury, should be on standby as a substitute. So to summarize, the Chinese men's football team's main lineup for the Asian Cup has surfaced, and the 11 main players should be: Yan Junling; Liu Yang, Zhu Chenjie, Jiang Guangtai, Zhang Linmiao; Wu Xi, Wang Qiuming; Wu Lei, Xie Pengfei, Wei Shihao; Tan Long
