At 22:30 on January 13 (Saturday), the Chinese men's football team will welcome the first opponent in the group stage of the Asian Cup, Tajikistan. According to the plan, the national football team will conduct technical and tactical drills on the finalization of the main lineup in the group stage from the 11th.
After coming to Qatar, the Chinese men's football team has been methodically carrying out the final preparations, and the players' state and mood have gradually recovered from the consecutive defeats some time ago. At present, except for captain Wu Xi, who cannot participate in confrontational training due to a leg injury, other players can participate in joint training normally, including Zhang Yuning, who has been in good form recently. His comeback has given head coach Jankovic more options in the use of single arrows in the forward line.
Facing their first opponent, Tajikistan, the goal of the whole team is very unanimous, that is, to go all out to win. Veteran Zhang Linpeng said that as a veteran player, the experience he can share with his teammates is to stay focused and do his best. Jiang Guangtai, who represented the national team in the Asian Cup for the first time, said that the whole team was looking forward to the start of the game and hoped that the team could go all out and go as far as possible.
Judging from the group stage schedule of the Chinese men's football team, the first two rounds were against Tajikistan and Lebanon, which were relatively weak in the group, and the last round was against the group seeded team and the defending champion Qatar, which was relatively favorable. As long as you play normally, you can ensure your qualification before the final round of the group. At the same time, this also puts forward higher requirements for the Chinese men's football team to enter the state as soon as possible in the first game and play a good start.
As the opponent of the national football team's first match, Tajikistan is the only team participating in the 24 teams participating in this Asian Cup for the first time. The Chinese men's football team has the upper hand in terms of both the world ranking (106th) and the individual ability of the players, and Galilov, the top scorer of the Tajikistan national team, missed the Asian Cup due to serious illness. Tajikistan coach Segert recruited a large number of young players in the Asian Cup, with at least 10 of them being of the U23 Olympic team, and five of them were born between 2003 and 2004. At that time, the running ability and impact of young people will create some problems for the Chinese men's football team.