Xinhua news agency, abu dhabi, january 17th: asian football has a real test-the asian cup group competition in 2019
xinhua news agency reporters liu ning and su xiaopo
the asian cup group competition in 2019 will be held on the 17th, south korea, japan, traditional strong teams such as Iran easily advanced to the top 16, while eight weak brigades such as North Korea, Yemen and the Philippines went back home, indicating that there was no major change in the layout of Football Asia. After three battles, the Chinese team scored 6 points in two wins and one loss, and entered the elimination match as the second in the group.
In the group match, the strong teams easily promoted
The Asian Cup expanded from the previous 16 teams to 24, making the three new armies Yemen, Philippines and Kyrgyzstan on the highest stage in Asian football. According to the rules, the top two of each group in the six groups and the third line of the four groups with the best results.
After three rounds of fighting, the UAE and Thailand, Jordan and Australia, South Korea and China, Iran and Iraq, Japan and Uzbekistan, Qatar and Saudi Arabia were promoted directly as the top two teams respectively, the teams of Bahrain, Kyrgyzstan, Oman and Vietnam became the third of the four best teams to enter the top 16.
The strength of the group matches is very different, and several wars have scored big scores. The North Korean team, which was broken 14 times in goal, became the team that lost the most balls. They first lost to Saudi Arabia at 0:4, then lost to Qatar at 0:6, and finally lost to Lebanon at 1:4. The outgoing Turkmen and Yemen teams lost 10 goals in three games.
Jordan defeated the defending champion Australia in the first round with 1:0 cold. This team, which ranked only 109 in the world, defeated Syria 2:0 in the second round and became the first team to enter the elimination match in this Asian Cup.
The former “fish brisket” Indian and Vietnamese teams performed well. The Indian team won the Thai team 4:1 in the first round and won the first victory in the Asian Cup finals in 55 years. The Vietnamese team took the lead twice in the first round, defeated Iraq team with 2:3 and defeated Yemen with 2:0 in the last round.
96 goals were scored in 36 games, with an average of 2.67 goals per game. With a single 4-goal match against North Korea, Qatar striker armeau Yates Ali temporarily led the list of shooters with 7 goals.
The State of the national football team is recovering. The elimination match is facing a real test
before this Asian Cup, the Chinese team continued to be in a depressed state for more than a year after failing the World Cup in Russia. In the first two group matches, the Chinese team gradually regained confidence by winning the Uzbekistan team 2:1 and the Philippines team 3:0.
Against Uzbekistan, the slow national football team let the opponent score a goal first. Relying on the opponent’s mistakes and the goal of Fu will be scored by Dabao, the Chinese team won by 1 goal. In the second game, Wu Lei, the “Golden Boots” of the Chinese Super League broke out and proved his strength with two wonderful goals. Yu Dabao’s header break in less than 1 minute was the icing on the cake for this victory.
The battle between China and South Korea for the first place in the group was forced by the need of the rotation of the competition. Wu Lei, Feng Xiaoting and Zhan Junmin of the national football team were absent. The South Korean team sent Sun Xingmin to lead the main lineup. The loss of 0:2 shows once again that no matter in terms of speed, impact, technology and age structure, there is a big gap between China team and Asia’s first-class strong teams like South Korea.
Fortunately, the whole team of the national football team has realized this gap. Face up to the gap, strive to catch up, and maintain confidence at the same time, the national football team can continue to move forward. In the words of coach Lippi, when all 23 players “are mentally unified, play more aggressive, and play well as a whole”, the team is still fully capable of competing with Asian teams.
The Chinese team will face the Thai team in the top 16 on the 20th. For the national football team, the real test in the Asian Cup is about to begin.
