On the morning of January 11, local time in Qatar, the Chinese men's football team continued to prepare for the 2023 Qatar Asian Cup at the training ground of Qatar University. The competition is about to kick off, and the two national football captains Wu Lei and Wu Xi both said that the team will work hard to start the game and strive to show the best state in the first game.
The Qatar 2023 Asian Cup will be held in Doha from January 12 to February 10, 2024. The 24 teams were divided into 6 groups. According to the rules, the top two teams from the group and the four best third-placed teams advance to the round of 16. China is in Group A with Qatar, Tajikistan and Lebanon. On January 13, the Chinese team will play Tajikistan in the first match of the group stage.
The tournament is off to a good start. Wu Lei said that the first game was very crucial, and the team had made a lot of preparations before, whether it was a training camp or a warm-up game, the goal was to adjust the state to the best in the first game and make a good start for this competition. Captain Wu Xi believes that the first game will be an encounter, the two sides have not played each other in recent years, and the team will focus on the first opponent and then think about the next game.
Before coming to Qatar, the Chinese men's football team camped in the United Arab Emirates for 20 days to run in the lineup and improve its state. The team played a total of four warm-up games, and the overall performance was not good. In this regard, Wu Lei also responded. He said that the team had been training in terms of physical fitness before, and the competitive level was not at its best, but now the team has entered the rhythm of the game and is getting better and better. "The players will also turn the pressure into motivation and strive to go further in this Asian Cup than in the previous edition. Wu Lei said.
In the last Asian Cup, the Chinese men's football team reached the quarterfinals. But in the quarterfinals, they lost to Iran. In recent years, the best result of the Chinese men's football team was in the 2004 Asian Cup, when the team advanced to the final and finished runners-up.
*: People's client.