As spring approaches and the U20 Asian Cup draws nearer, our 2003-born U20 national youth team is gearing up on the green fields of Croatia. They have already had their second game of the warm-up tournament, but tasted defeat again with a 0-2 score against the host Croatian National Youth Team. So far, they have participated in seven warm-up matches with a record of one win and six losses.
Our youth team has set up two training bases in Dubai and Zagreb, Croatia in preparation for the Asian Cup. After five warm-up matches in Dubai, in which they won one, drew two and lost two, they arrived in Croatia and have now played three warm-up matches against Latvia, Croatia and Slovenia.
On February 9, in a match against the Latvian National Youth Football Team, the Chinese team once fell behind 0-2, but scored two goals in the second half to equalize the score to 2-2 and avoid defeat. Despite the fact that the average age of the Chinese team is slightly older, they were still young against their opponents.
The opponent of the second warm-up match is the host Croatian national youth team with good strength, who are ranked second only to the Croatian national team in Europe and seventh in the world, and their average age is also slightly lower than that of the Chinese team. In order to protect the technical and tactical, our youth team requested the Croatian organizers not to live broadcast the video of the game, and even not to release the game pictures to the public, so the warm-up match was in a highly closed state.
According to the official website of the Croatian Football Association (CFA), the Chinese team was sent off one person in the 19th minute of the first half and did not take a 1-0 lead until stoppage time. In the 88th minute of the second half, the Croatian national youth team seized the opportunity to extend the score to 2-0 and eventually beat China.
China missed out on the title race early in the Four Nations tournament in Croatia with one draw and one loss. Next, they will face the Slovenian national youth team in their third warm-up match.
Facing such a strong team as the Croatian National Youth Football Team, the Chinese team, despite its lack of strength, was almost passive throughout the game, with no highlights. According to the grouping of the U20 Asian Cup, China will be in the same group with Japan, Saudi Arabia and Kyrgyzstan. Apart from Kyrgyzstan, China will need a miracle to advance to the knockout stage.
The 2023 World Youth Championships will be held in Indonesia, and the AFC has stipulated that the top four finishers in the U20 Asian Cup will advance directly to the World Youth Championships. After advancing to the group stage, our youth team will need to win one more game to advance to the quarterfinals.
