Poster News reporter Zheng Hao reports.
0-2, at the end of 2023, the national football team still lost to the old rival Oman in the warm-up match. As the last game of 2023, the national football team ended its journey in 2023 with a loss. It's just that from the "boy who sent points" more than 20 years ago to today's "roadblock", whether the Oman team has grown up or the national football team is not as good as the generation, I am afraid every Chinese fan knows in his heart.
Those old days. From sending a boy to a roadblock.
On October 7, 2001, with the goal of Chinese football legend Yu Genwei, the Chinese men's football team defeated Oman 1-0 and advanced to the World Cup finals for the first time. Although the national football team swallowed "nine eggs" in 3 games in the South Korea-Japan World Cup, it seems that it is the pinnacle of the national football team.
Time has passed, and when the 2022 Qatar World Cup qualifiers kicked off, Oman turned out to be a fierce rival of the national team - after entering the round of 12, Oman earned enough face on the Chinese team with a 2-0 and a 1-1 game.
In the Qatar World Cup qualifiers, Oman made the national football team suffer.
At that time, the national football team was still in the era of "unity is iron". That is, after the top 12 matches, Chinese football has entered another climax of anti-gambling and anti-counterfeiting since professionalization.
However, the strength of Chinese football has not increased. When the 2026 World Cup qualifiers kicked off, we were surprised to find that even the Thai team, which was not eye-catching at the time, became a roadblock in China's group.
The World Preliminaries have come to an end for the time being, and the journey of the Asian Cup is about to begin. Placed in Group A with Qatar, Tajikistan and Lebanon, the fans became "mathematicians" again. After all, in addition to the top two teams in each group qualifier, the four best third-placed teams can also make it through to the knockout rounds. And what fans are generally concerned about is to advance to the knockout stage as the group leader, so as to face what "level" team.
Oman has become the strongest opponent of the Chinese team before the Asian Cup, which is still a little incredible when you think about it now.
Polishing the lineup. "When will it come out?".
Due to the need for tactical secrecy, the match between the national football team and Oman was closed throughout the whole process. Judging from the official 11 starting lineups given by the Oman side, Jankovic is still dominated by the team of the World Preliminary Tournament in November last year.
Goalkeeper Wang Dalei, Zhang Linpeng, Jiang Shenglong, Zhu Chenjie formed three central defenders, and two wingbacks Liu Binbin and Liu Yang;Wang Shangyuan and Dai Weijun, tridents Wu Lei and Wei Shihao are on the wings, and Tan Long plays center. In this lineup, except for Wang Dalei replacing Yan Junling and Dai Weijun replacing the captain Wu Xi, who has a little tight muscles, the other 9 people are exactly the same.
It is understandable that this is Jankovic building the "most ready".
Jankovic led the team to the Asian Cup.
The shortcomings of this lineup are also obvious to all. Li Ke was expelled from the squad for violating discipline, and the veteran Wu Xi was also a little tired after a long season, and only Wang Qiuming, Gao Tianyi, Xu Xin and other candidates could be replaced-the first two lack of experience in the competition, and Xu Xin gave a "general" answer in the 2023 season.
It's also normal, everyone's fitness is not at its best. "After the loss, Jankovic seemed very calm.
On the contrary, it was the Omani coach Ivankovic, who once coached Shandong Taishan, who gave the national football team enough face: "I am very satisfied with the performance of the national football team in this game. Compared to the meeting a year ago, I think the Chinese team is more motivated, stronger, and takes the game more seriously. It may be that in the last match, the Chinese team was unable to qualify and did not even have the opportunity to participate in the play-offs, so the national football team lacked motivation in the game at that time. In addition, I know that the domestic league in China usually starts in March, and the players may not be in a good situation in all aspects and are not 100 per cent committed to the game. But now the situation is completely different, and I think the Chinese team is preparing. China's domestic league has also ended, and the players are preparing for the game. I expect the Chinese team to finish at least the top two in the group and move on to the next stage of the competition. ”