Beijing, January 12 (Reporter Bian Liqun) After five years, the Asian Cup will kick off on the evening of the 12th Beijing time, and the opening match will be played by the host Qatar team against the Lebanese team. The first match of the national football team will start at 22:30 Beijing time on the 13th, against the Tajikistan team.
The competition for the Asian Cup title is unprecedented. In addition to the performance of the national football team, the star-studded teams of Japan and South Korea have added a lot of "star flavor" to this cup, which can be described as full of highlights.
The national football team prepares for the Asian Cup **Chinese football team.
The competition for the championship is more intense.
Compared with the Asian Cup in the United Arab Emirates five years ago, this cup is obviously more starry. This is mainly due to the fact that the youth training system of the Japanese team and the South Korean team has "blossomed" in recent years.
At the World Cup in Qatar a year ago, they proved themselves further. In the group stage, Japan beat Germany and Spain, while South Korea beat Portugal and beat Uruguay in the same group.
After a year, they went to Qatar again, and in this Asian Cup, the Japanese team and the South Korean team played their main role.
In terms of the Japanese team, Endo Hang, who plays for Liverpool, Arsenal's Tomiyasu Kenhiro, Brighton's Mikasa and others were all called up, in addition to 20 European players such as Kubo Kenei, Doan Ritsu, Minamino Takumi, Itakura Takura, etc. Faced with the "troubles of happiness", the Japanese team finally gave up on recruiting famous players such as Daichi Kamada, Bi Tanaka, and Hiroo Furuhashi.
Data map: Photo by Cui Nan of the Japanese team in the World Cup.
The South Korean team has stars such as Son Heung-min, Kim Min-jae, Lee Gang-in, Hwang Hee-chan and other stars who play in Europe's top five leagues. For this lineup, Chinese fans are quite familiar. In the World Preliminary Tournament more than 1 month ago, the national football team lost 0:3 to the South Korean team.
Both Japan and South Korea have shouted the slogan of winning the Asian Cup, especially since the last time the Korean team won the championship was back in 1960. Coach Klinsmann said in a high-profile manner that the goal of the strongest South Korean team in history is to win the championship, and even bluntly said that the Japanese team is the opponent that the South Korean team most wants to eliminate in the knockout round.
In addition, traditional Asian powerhouses such as Iran, Australia, Saudi Arabia and Uzbekistan also have strong strengths. In particular, Saudi Arabia is bidding for the World Cup, and its domestic league is in full swing, so they naturally want to win in the Asian Cup.
Data map: Photo by Tomita of the national football team and the South Korean team in the world preliminaries.
How far can the national football team go?
What attracts the most attention from Chinese fans is how the national football team will perform in this Asian Cup. Although the strength of the national football team has decreased compared with the last Asian Cup, it has been divided into Group A where the host is located, and the overall situation is still relatively favorable.
Both Qatar and Lebanon have experienced a change of manager recently. The former was only confirmed last month as the team's manager, with Marques as the manager. In the warm-up match before the Asian Cup, they lost 1:2 to Jordan.
It was only last month that the Lebanese team announced that Radulovic was back in charge. In the previous warm-up matches, they defeated Jordan 2:1 and Saudi Arabia 0:1.
Data map: The national football team and the South Korean team in the world preliminary match.
Judging from the group situation, the national football team still has a relatively large hope of qualifying. After all, in addition to the top two teams in the group, the four teams with the best results in the third place group can also qualify.
However, if the national football team wants to go further, it still has to try to qualify as the top two teams in the group, otherwise they will face a strong Australian team or Iranian team after that. In the past two Asian Cups, it was these two teams that ended the promotion of the national football team.
According to the statistics of authoritative data agencies, the probability of qualifying for the national football group of this Asian Cup has reached 744%, and the probability of reaching the quarterfinals is 368%, with a probability of 22%。
Data map: The national football team and the Thai team in the world preliminaries.
Whether you can get back into shape is key.
However, the ** before the tournament is more on paper, and the final result still depends on the team's pre-game preparation and on-the-spot performance. In the previous closed warm-up match, the national football team was in an unsatisfactory state, losing 0:2 to Oman and 1:2 to Hong Kong, China.
Coach Jankovic said he had put the results of the warm-up games on the back burner. In the first 10 days of preparation, the team trains a lot, so in the warm-up games, the players' bodies will sink a little.
National Football Coach Jankovic **Chinese Football Team.
From the perspective of world rankings, the national football team is currently ranked 79th, and the opponents in the same group, Tajikistan and Lebanon, are ranked 106th and 107th respectively. From the perspective of strength, the national football team is definitely not at a disadvantage.
As for facing the host Qatar team, which is stronger than itself, it is a very good opportunity for the national football team to hone their skills. After all, the team still has the task of the World Preliminary Tournament in the future, and this kind of tough battle is what the national football team under Jankovic urgently needs to experience, and if it can advance to the round of 18 as it wishes this year, it will be the norm against opponents of this level of the Qatar team.
Therefore, the key to the national football team is to find back its mentality and state. If you play in the Asian Cup in the same form as you did in the previous warm-up matches, then qualifying from the group may really be a goal that makes people feel a little weak.
But if the team plays normally, it is also expected to advance to the quarterfinals. For the national football team, playing one more game in the knockout round is earned. If the goal of the quarterfinals can be achieved, it will undoubtedly boost the team's confidence in the next World Qualifiers. (ENDS).