The Chinese men's football team's preparation for the Asian Cup has attracted much attention. Yesterday, the Chinese team won a warm-up match against the UAE second division team with a score of 5:1, but the difference between the two halves was obvious. In the first half, the Chinese team led 4:0, however, in the second half, the opponent scored a goal, and the Chinese team only scored one. This is indeed a bit embarrassing for a real national team against a UAE second division team.
The 26 players currently trained by the Chinese team are very likely to become official players in next year's Asian Cup, and the only thing that may change is Li Ke, who was forced to leave the team due to being late, and it is not known whether he can squeeze out a player at the last moment and become the last member of the Asian Cup. In the group stage of the Asian Cup, the Chinese team was in the same group as the host Qatar team, the last Asian Cup champion Lebanon team and the Kyrgyz team. In terms of strength and ranking, the Chinese team is second in this group.
The top two teams from each group will advance directly, while the third-place finishers from the other six groups will have their records compared, and the four third-placed finishers with better results will also advance to form the round of 16. In the last Asian Cup, the Chinese team won the second place in the group stage, successfully advanced to the knockout round, and defeated the Thai team 2:1 to advance to the quarterfinals. However, in the quarterfinals, the Chinese team lost 0:3 to the Iranian team and stopped in the quarterfinals of the Asian Cup, which is also the best result achieved by the Chinese men's football team in the Asian Cup.
So far, the Chinese men's football team has failed to qualify for the quarterfinals three times in its history, in 1986, 2007 and 2011. These three Asian Cups were all poor results achieved by the Chinese team under the leadership of the local head coach. Since Schlapner coached the Chinese men's football team in '92, the Chinese team's performance in the Asian Cup has never been lower than the quarterfinals since the foreign coach took over, and it is still unknown whether Jankovic can continue this excellent record.
The Chinese team is aiming for the quarterfinals, but I don't think this is what Jankovic envisioned. Considering the relatively limited strength of the Chinese men's football team, especially when it cannot defeat the Malaysian team, it is quite difficult to advance to the quarterfinals. This is likely to be the goal set by the new FA president, Song Kai, who wants to extend his run of at least a run to the quarterfinals. Therefore, it is quite possible that he gave instructions to Jankovic that had to be achieved.
Prior to this, Song Kai had issued a strict order before the Chinese women's football team went to the Olympic qualifiers, that is, to enter the Olympic finals. However, Shui Qingxia failed to achieve this goal and was quickly removed from her position as head coach. If Jankovic can't lead his team to the quarterfinals, will he be able to make it to next year's World Qualifiers?