On September 7, Doha time, China's soccer team faced a strong Japanese team in the second group match of the World Preliminary Round 12, and despite adopting a 532 formation and doing their best, they ended up with a 0-1 defeat. Compared to the first group game, China's tacit understanding and synergy at the defensive end has improved significantly. However, it also meant the double loss of Zhang Linpeng, who left the game with a serious injury, and Wu Xi, who was suspended for accumulating yellow cards.
With two group matches in September behind them, the Chinese team is scheduled to depart from Qatar the following evening for Sharjah in the United Arab Emirates. Sharjah, which hosted the Top 40 tournament in June, seems to be a "blessed place" for the Chinese team. Here, the Chinese team's training will begin, and the third group match against Vietnam will also be held here, according to the schedule, this game will be the home of the Chinese team.
During the Top 40, due to the epidemic policy, the Chinese team had to switch to Sharjah, and the CFA expressed high satisfaction with the local reception and tournament organization. But this trip to Sharjah, the national football team will no longer choose the Sheraton Hotel, where they had stayed, but choose the Novotel Sharjah Convention and Exhibition Center Hotel as their new base.
Due to the lack of warm-up matches in the previous phase, which had a serious impact on the team's overall preparations, the national football team hopes to contact local teams to arrange a few high-quality warm-up matches for this Sharjah training session. The UAE league is still in progress, and local sports officials have also said they will assist the national soccer team in finding warm-up opponents.
