At the start of 2024, the dust settles on the Asian Cup tournament with Qatar as the hosts. Back on the night of May 11, 2023, the dust settled on the Asian Cup draw and the six regional teams were revealed, with our national team unlucky enough to be placed in Group A. Alongside our country were Tajikistan, Lebanon and hosts Qatar, while Group B gathered Australia, Uzbekistan, Syria and India; Group C consisted of Iran, the UAE, and Palestine; Group D included Japan, Indonesia, Iraq, and Vietnam; Group E featured South Korea, Malaysia, Jordan, and Bahrain; and Group F was a Saudi Arabia, Thailand, Kyrgyzstan, and Oman Matchup.
Our national team is in Group A and seems to be in luck. All four teams are facing relatively ideal opponents and seem to have locked the path to advancement in advance. However, the strength of the group is so close that every match could turn into a battle to the death. The order of our national team's group matches has already been determined, with Tajikistan in the first match, Lebanon in the second, and Qatar, the favorite to win the championship, in the last match.
Our soccer star Shao Jiayi is looking forward to the Asian Cup and believes that the first match is crucial and may directly determine the fate of promotion. The first match against Tajikistan is seen as a fight to the death and we must give it our all. Media reporters are also unanimously optimistic about our national team, despite remaining humble about any opponent in the group, the upper limit of our team's strength should not be underestimated. After all, our team has a rich history of playing against close opponents and a squad with great potential.
From the coaching level, the new manager of our national team, Jankovic, plans to use six naturalized players, including Fernando, Li Ke, Jiang Guangtai, Luo Guofu, Ekerson and Alan. If these six can be fully utilized, they will form a strong starting lineup to help our team compete for the first place in the group and to compete with the host Qatar. However, the difficulty of winning the title should not be underestimated as our team still lacks a top coach like Lippi.
Looking back at the last Asian Cup, our team steadily advanced under the coaching of Lippi, but in the 1/8 finals, the defense made a major mistake and lost 0-3 to Iran, stopping the quarter-finals. Jankovic's leadership in the game as a pragmatic coach needs to be improved. In the recent match between the national soccer team and New Zealand, Jankovic led the team to a 0-0 draw and a 1-2 loss, two consecutive undefeated games. Next, Jankovic will face a bigger challenge.
Historical data shows that our national team has played Qatar 20 times, with a slight advantage, 8 wins, 6 draws and 6 losses; 5 times with Tajikistan, undefeated, 4 wins and 1 draw; 5 times with Lebanon, also undefeated, 4 wins and 1 draw. As long as our team makes full use of naturalized players, the first two rounds of the game is expected to win, and the third round of the competition with Qatar is the real test.
According to Beijing Youth Daily reporter Xiao Hao, China's national team has begun to prepare for the Asian Cup.In June, the national team will open warm-up training and has confirmed two warm-up matches against Myanmar on June 16th and Palestine on June 20th.
