The Chinese men's soccer team will be playing catch-up in the second round of the group stage of the upcoming 2026 Asian Cup qualifiers, with a fierce showdown against fellow strong rivals South Korea. The marquee match will be broadcast live via CCTV5 at 7:30 p.m. Beijing time on Tuesday, with the game officially kicking off at 8:00 p.m.
We are currently in the first stage of the group stage of the Asian Cup. A total of 36 teams have been divided into nine groups, with the top two from each group advancing to the round of 18. In the first round of matches, South Korea swept Singapore 5-0 to temporarily top the group, while our soccer team won 2-1 against Thailand and is currently in the second place of the group.
In terms of strength, South Korea is undoubtedly the best in the group, while our soccer team and Thailand need to do their best to fight for another ticket to advance. Our soccer team beat Thailand in the first round on the road, laying a solid foundation for the group. If they can beat South Korea at home in the second round, the possibility of advancing to the top 18 will be greatly increased. After all, winning Singapore in a row is not a difficult task, as long as they get 12 points, even if there is an extreme situation, they can still ensure the top two.
In the past ten years, our soccer team has only beaten South Korea twice, once in the East Asia Quarterfinals 13 years ago, when goals from Yu Hai, Gao Lin and Deng Zhuoxiang helped the team to a brilliant victory. The other time was in the last World Cup qualifier when Yu Dabao scored the only goal as our soccer team beat South Korea in Changsha, but ultimately failed to advance to the Asian Cup.
Despite being the underdogs in their history, our soccer team is not without a fighting chance on their own doorstep. A number of players in the Korean team have become mainstays in Europe's top five leagues, with Son Sung becoming captain of Tottenham Hotspur and currently second only to Harland and Salah in the Premier League in terms of goals scored.
However, head coach Jankovic emphasized that the focus of the team's defense is not only Sun Sung, but the whole Korean team. Sun Sung is not the only target of defense; every Korean player has excellent strength and ability to score goals. Therefore, our soccer team needs to develop a fighting spirit and even if they end up losing, they need to leave the field heroically instead of having a mental breakdown.
The showdown between Wu Lei, the top scorer of our soccer team, and Son Heung-jin of South Korea is also highly anticipated. Wu Lei used to play for the Spanish team in La Liga and is no stranger to European soccer. Although there is still a gap between Wu Lei and Son Heung-jin, there is no certainty in the world of soccer, and Wu Lei's performance may exceed expectations.
There are also many differences between the coaching teams of the two sides. Our head coach, Jankovic, is a grassroots player with an unimpressive coaching career. South Korea's head coach Jurgen Klinsmann, on the other hand, is a familiar star to fans, having won the World Cup and the European Cup as a player, and as a coach he led Germany to a third-place finish in the World Cup and the U.S. to the round of 16.
Despite the obvious gap between our soccer team and Korea at the player and coach level, our soccer team still showed good spirit from the first round of matches, and the team did not give up in the face of Thailand's first goal, which ultimately led to a reversal. Facing South Korea, such mental strength is crucial, the lack of skills is not terrible, the key is to have the confidence to win the game, because this is the most unacceptable to the fans, if even South Korea failed to win, how can we challenge the subsequent stages of the strong enemy?
With the expansion of the World Cup to 32 teams and a total of 8.5 qualifying spots in the Asian region, this provides the perfect opportunity for our soccer team to enter the World Cup. Having not tasted the World Cup for more than 20 years, our soccer team should face up to the challenge and let the fans witness if they can step into the World Cup stage after eliminating South Korea.
