On May 18th, news came from Beijing that former soccer star Fan Zhiyi shared his insights on China's national soccer team's preparation for the 40-team tournament at an event. He said confidently that with the favorable conditions of "right place, right time, and right people", the national football team will be able to win the upcoming four matches of the 40-team tournament.
Fan Zhiyi spoke highly of the recent training results of the national football team: "Since Li Tie took over, we have not only had closed training in Shanghai, but also watched the warm-up matches, and it feels like all the team's efforts are aimed at successfully entering the next stage."
In this training session, five naturalized players, including Ackerson, Allan, Fernando, Jiang Guangtai and Li Ke, stood out. Talking about the naturalization policy, Fan Zhiyi believes that "naturalization is a means to cope with market demand, and putting that aside, I think the national team now has a very good spirit."
In the face of the upcoming four 40 matches, Fan Zhiyi is full of confidence: "As the game approaches, Guam, Maldives, Syria, the Philippines, these opponents are not our opponents at all. If you can't even beat these four teams, what's the point of the later games? We need to play these games well these days, even a 1-0 win would be the same. The key is to prioritize, Syria is our strongest opponent."
Fan concluded by re-emphasizing that the national football team is in no doubt for the four matches of the 40-team tournament.
"Considering the current timing, including the epidemic factor, the preparation of the national team, and the changes in the atmosphere and personnel, I think the national soccer team will definitely have no problem in these four matches."
According to the schedule released by the AFC, China will play its first match against Guam on May 30, face the Maldives on June 3, take on the Philippines on June 9 and challenge Syria in the final match on June 15th. All matches will be held at the Suzhou Olympic Sports Center.
