China's top soccer teams play frequent warm-up matches, and now the U22 national soccer team is training in Europe. Cheng Yaodong's coaching staff has been giving the players a taste of various different styles of opponents through frequent warm-up matches. Previously, they experienced the Belgian league after completing five matches against Croatia. The strength of the opponents has improved significantly. In a recent match against Anderlecht Reserves, the U22 national soccer team was behind in the score in the first two quarters. The attack improved until the substitutes were brought in one after another, but even then, the opponents scored five goals to the U22 national soccer team's two.
After the strong teams, Cheng Yaodong's coaching staff arranged the fourth division team Biersholt Reserves. The latter is ranked at the bottom of the table with only 21 points from 5 wins, 6 draws and 20 losses in 31 rounds, and is weaker than the U22 national soccer team. The outsiders are also hoping to bounce back with a big win. Because this game was the second in 2 days, Sung Yeo Dong's coaching staff still did a rotation.
The game started with a strong sense of offense as China dominated the midfield and kept passing the ball into the opponent's penalty area. The debutant Wang Bowen was very active. He finished a two-minute shot in the penalty area, the ball hit the opponent and the referee took a penalty kick. Facing the chance he created, Wang Bowen did not hesitate to stand at the penalty spot, but keeper Ducore judged the right direction and pounced on the ball, China missed the lead.
After 15 minutes, Biersholt gradually adapted to the rhythm, and after a break in front of the field, Biersholt intentionally took the lead and ended the first half with a one-goal advantage. In the second half, the Chinese team went all out on offense, but Biershot was the advanced player, the striker passed the goalkeeper and pushed the empty net to extend the advantage to two goals. In the 54th minute counterattack, Zhao Bolin broke through the penalty area and was brought down by his opponent. The referee awarded another penalty kick. This time, Zhao Bolin was penalized for kicking to the left. Ducore again judged correctly and settled the ball.
In the 58th minute, China got a free kick opportunity in the opponent's half and Yang Zihao immediately scored to bring the score to 1-2. In the 78th minute, substitute He Longhai entered the penalty area with his individual ability and was brought down by the opponent. He Longhai took the penalty kick himself, but Ducore pounced the ball to the right side and managed to block the penalty kick. It was the 3rd penalty kick and the 3rd goal conceded, a very rare situation. Ducore thus became a goalkeeper and assisted Biershot Reserves to an unexpected 2-1 victory over the U22 national team. The latter endured two defeats in the last two days and suffered eight defeats in the second phase of the European stretches.
