U23 Korea will enter the second match of Group B of the U23 Asian finals with a clash with China at Abdullah bin Nasser bin Khalifa Stadium. The former champion had a triumphant performance with a minimum score on the opening day against UAE U23, in a difficult match. On the other side of the battle line, China U23 continued to show poor performance when losing to Japan despite playing 2/3 matches better than others.
AFC Asian Cup U23 football prediction
Asian ratio: 0.94 : 0:1.5 : 0.90
European ratio: 1.23 : 4.80 : 10.50
Over/Under ratio: 0.83 : 2/2.5 : 0.99
Expert opinion : Difficulties were predicted before China U23 faced Japan U23 on the opening day of Group B of the 2024 U23 Asia tournament in Qatar. The young Chinese team could barely hold the ball during the first 10 minutes of the match and right in the 8th minute, China’s U23 net shook after Kuryu Matsuki’s shot. However, just 10 minutes later, the advantage came to coach Cheng Yaodong and his team when Japan U23 only played with 10 people after Ryuya Nishio received a direct red card. Playing better than others, China U23 could not outperform the match in the remaining time, when the most dangerous opportunities only came from shots outside the penalty area.
China’s U23 deadlock reached its peak when coach Cheng Yaodong decided to… send goalkeeper Yu Jinyong onto the field in the 88th minute as a striker, to take advantage of this goalkeeper’s height of over 2m. Of course, with the limited ability of a goalkeeper, he only touched the ball about 5 times and couldn’t make any accurate passes. The defeat against Japan U23 clearly shows that China U23 is still too weak and cannot rule out the possibility that they will soon leave Asia U23 without getting any points. Because their two remaining opponents will be U23 Korea and U23 United Arab Emirates, one team is a former tournament champion, and the other is also considered a “dark horse”.
Appreciating UAE U23 is not unfounded when looking at how difficult they are for Korea U23, the upcoming opponent of China U23. Coach Hwang Sun-Hong did not hesitate to launch the strongest squad, with young players who are the mainstays in domestic clubs. Lee Kang-Hee and Kang Sang-Yoon’s ability to hold the ball helped U23 Korea dominate their Arab opponents. However, their attack was ineffective, especially An Jae-Jun, who missed at least 2 good opportunities. This player was replaced immediately after the first half, and replacement striker Kang Seong-Jin was not much better. However, the striker playing for Seoul FC spoke up at the right time when he created the conditions for Lee Young-Jun to score the only goal in the 4th minute of injury time.
