On May 12, after the results of the Asian Cup group draw were announced, Sports Weekly reporter Ma Dexing released a document commenting on the group in which the national soccer team was placed. He believes that the group draw is perfectly acceptable, or at least not bad, and even "signature" to some extent.
The group is against the weakest opponent in its class
Hosts Qatar and Lebanon, who are in the same group as China, are ranked the lowest in their respective rankings; although Tajiks in the fourth tier are in Southeast Asia, Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia, including Hong Kong, China, this is, after all, the first time in history that this team has participated in the Asian Cup finals, and is the only new team in this Asian Cup (qualifying for the finals for the first time), which is almost certainly the weakest of all the fourth tier Teams.
China itself is the weakest team in the second tier. While FIFA's current ranking of 81st is higher than Jordan's 84th, if you actually played against Jordan, you might not be sure you'd win. In this case, scoring in the same group as the relatively lowest power ranked team in the other three tiers is perfectly acceptable. It could even be argued that nothing could be more ideal than the current signings.
1/8th final opponents may not be strong
Even if China loses to Qatar, as long as they can beat Lebanon and Tajikistan, they are guaranteed to finish second in the group. Another important reason is that China's "signing" is good. In other words, if the Chinese team advances to the second place in the first group, they will get the second place in the third group in the one-eighth final. With the overall strength of Iran, UAE, Palestine and Hong Kong, there is a high probability that Iran will finish first and UAE will finish second. In this way, China may meet UAE. But the UAE's current situation is quite bad, too
Based on the current overall strength of Chinese soccer, making it to the top four may be unrealistic, but the top eight should be said to be a goal that should be pursued with all one's might, because only by making it to the top eight can the outside world rekindle confidence. If the opponents are slightly weaker in the top eight, it will certainly be beneficial for the national soccer team to achieve its goal.
