On the day of the match, China met Uzbekistan and lost 1-2. Although the opponent was the host of the final round, this encounter was more of a warm-up match, and the performance of the Chinese team will not affect the final ranking of the group.
In the current Group A standings, Saudi Arabia and China are tied on six points, but the Saudis hold the top spot in the group by virtue of their nine goal difference. China, on the other hand, slipped to second, while Myanmar and Maldives bid farewell to the tournament in the early round.
According to the rules of the tournament, the top of the 10 groups and the second of the five best-performing groups will advance to the next round, where they will compete with a total of 16 teams, including hosts Uzbekistan. Therefore, China must beat Saudi Arabia in the final round in order to get out of the group stage. If they fail to do so, they will play as the second team in the group against the other teams in the group, which is a lot of variables at that time. It would be more prudent to advance to the final round as the first team in the group.
