The Chinese women's football team welcomes the first match of the Olympic preliminary round tonight [to break through from the "death group"]
Remember the past of "outside Gusu City, Han 2021:3" in early 4? On that day, Wuhan's Wang Shuang turned the tide and scored two goals alone, leading the Chinese women's football team to a difficult victory over South Korea and securing the final ticket to the Tokyo Olympics.
After more than two years, the 2024 Paris Olympic qualifiers will start again. On October 10 at 26:7 p.m., the Chinese women's football team will play their first match at Xiamen Bailu Stadium against Asian powerhouse North Korea.
The Olympic Preliminary Round is far more difficult than the World Preliminary Round
As we all know, the Chinese women's football team has three important competitions in 2023, which are also known as the "three major battles" by industry insiders. These are the Australia-New Zealand Women's World Cup, which starts in late July, the Hangzhou Asian Games, which starts in late September, and the Paris Olympic Qualifiers, which start in late October.
In the two competitions that have ended, the Chinese women's football team has a poor record. In the group stage of the Australia-New Zealand Women's World Cup, the Chinese women's football team won 1 and lost 2 and missed the round of 3. At the Hangzhou Asian Games, they lost 4:<> to Japan in the semifinals and reached the semifinals. Due to the close timing of the Hangzhou Asian Games and the Olympic qualifiers, the Chinese women's football team hardly rested and went to Xiamen early for closed training, and head coach Shui Qingxia knew that the difficulty of this Olympic qualifier was far more difficult than the previous two competitions.
As we all know, the 2023 Australia-New Zealand Women's World Cup has been expanded, with a total of 6 teams from Asia, namely the hosts Australia, China, Japan, South Korea, Vietnam and the Philippines. The World Cup qualifiers rely on the Women's Asian Cup, which will be held in early 2022. In other words, as long as you reach the final four, you can get a ticket to the World Cup.
However, there are only two places allocated to Asia in the Olympic qualifiers, which also means that the four major teams of China, Japan, South Korea and Australia will compete fiercely, not to mention that the North Korean team has also been joined in this Olympic qualifier. The "mysterious team" reached the final at the Hangzhou Asian Games, which ended earlier this month, and although they lost 2-1 to Japan in the final, the performance of the North Korean team undoubtedly sounded a wake-up call for the Chinese women's team.
How to break out of the "group of death"?
Judging from the situation of the Olympic preliminary round group, the Chinese women's football team has undoubtedly drawn a "signing". In addition to the old rival South Korea, the aforementioned North Korean team and Thailand, which has participated in two Women's World Cups, are also in the same group.
It is precisely because the three major teams of China, North Korea and South Korea are in the same group, the other two Asian women's football teams, Japan and Australia, have a stress-free group qualification trip. The Japanese team is grouped with Vietnam, Uzbekistan and India, and the first place in the group is a foregone conclusion. The Australian team is in the same group as Chinese Taipei, the Philippines and Iran, and there is no suspense in finishing first in the group.
In fact, tonight's Olympic preliminary group stage is only the second stage of the competition, even if the Chinese team can finish first in the group, it will still not be guaranteed to participate in the Paris Olympics. According to the Paris Olympic Qualifier rules, the first place team in the three groups in the second stage and the second place team in the group with better results will advance to the third stage. The four teams will face each other in a two-legged battle between home and away, with the two winners qualifying for the Paris Olympics.
As mentioned earlier, finishing first in the group in the second stage is stressless for Japan and Australia, but it is extremely difficult for the Chinese women's team. The North Korean women's football team and the South Korean women's football team in the same group are also the teams that broke into the final four with the Chinese women's football team at the Hangzhou Asian Games, and they are not inferior to the Chinese team in terms of strength.
In terms of schedule, the Chinese women's football team will play North Korea for the first time on the evening of October 10, which is also an extremely crucial match. In a way, it is quite similar to the situation at the Women's World Cup at the end of July, and the first match is a decisive match. Facing the Thai team on October 26, the Chinese women's football team cannot afford to lose and must go all out to win. On November 7, the final round of the group stage against South Korea was the last chance for the Chinese women's football team to qualify from the group.
In general, North Korea and South Korea, and China must beat one of them to have any hope of competing for the first place in the group or the second place in the better-performing group. The difficulty is imminent, and you can't get around it no matter what, you can only fight with all your strength.
Reporter Ma Wanyong
Wuhan Evening News, October 2023, 10, 26th edition