In the face of the North Korean U20 women's football team, which is stronger than itself in overall strength and emphasizes physical confrontation, the Chinese U20 women's football team has made sufficient preparations.
Only 7 minutes into the opening game, Lu Jiayu scored with a header, but it was blown invalid due to offside.
Judging from the slow-motion replay, the penalty for offside was blown by a millimeter this time, which is debatable.
Although they couldn't take the lead in the opening game, the girls of the U20 women's team played very aggressively. They weren't afraid to take on their opponents' physicals, and even in the fast-paced transitions between offense and defence, they didn't expose too many holes in their defense.
It wasn't until the second half of the game, as the Chinese team's fitness declined, that the North Korean team found an opportunity to score with a long-range shot.
Fortunately, 4 minutes later, Huo Yuexin saved the Chinese team with a stunning long-range shot and grabbed a point for the team. Seeing ** score the equalizing goal, Director Wang Jun excitedly raised his arms and shouted.
The top four finishers from this year's U20 Asian Cup will qualify for this year's U20 Women's World Cup.
The eight teams are divided into two groups, with the top two teams in each group qualifying, while China's women's team is Japan, North Korea and Vietnam.
Japan and North Korea were the champions and runners-up of the last tournament and were strong. If the Chinese team wants to make it out of the group, they will have to fight to beat one of their two opponents.
Although they failed to defeat the North Korean U20 women's football team in the first game, the Chinese team did not lose and retained their hopes of qualifying. Especially the equalizer at the last moment greatly boosted the morale of the girls, which is conducive to the Chinese team to fight the Japanese team next, strive for the top two in the group and get the right to qualify.
In order to prepare for the U20 Women's Asian Cup, the Chinese U20 women's football team led by Wang Jun assembled in Kunming on February 12, the third day of the first lunar month, and conducted training camps in Kunming and Chengdu.
Before and after the Spring Festival, a total of 50 days of preparation were carried out and 13 warm-up matches were participated.
The team arrived in Tashkent early on 28 February to adjust to the time difference and the local training and competition environment.
As a strong local coach, Wang Jun has created a tough style of play for this team, and the girls echo each other on the field in a timely manner, and they will not give up easily in the face of any opponent.
During the training camp at the beginning of the year, Wang Jun said in the training session, "Can we joke about our own business? Can you joke about the cause of the state? Those words still sound deafening today.
For the Chinese women's national football team, since the next Women's Asian Cup will be held in 2026 and the next Women's World Cup will be held in 2027, there will be no major tournaments to play this year and next.
The performance of the U20 women's football girls in the Asian arena and even the world arena may indicate the future development trend of the Chinese women's football team.
In 2014, Wang Jun led the Chinese women's football U20 team to the U20 Women's World Cup, and the players in the team at that time included Wang Shuang, Xiao Yuyi, Li Mengwen, Yao Lingwei, Tang Jiali, Liu Yanqiu and others, and many people have become the main force of the Chinese women's national football team.
From this point of view, from the Asian Cup qualifying round to the U20 Women's World Cup, if the little girls of the Chinese U20 women's football team can play step by step in the international competition, they will also receive experience in the process of constantly striving for honors, and have the opportunity to become the main force of the Chinese women's national football team in the future.