On August 1, the Hangzhou Asian Games Men's Football Round of 8 was lit on Sunday, with China's U23 national team ushering in a summit clash with South Korea's U23s on their home turf. Although it's only an eight-team match, the tension is much higher than previous Asian Games soccer matches. With over 50,000 spectators expected, the entire Huanglong Sports Center stadium was buzzing with activity in the hours leading up to the match. However, in a one-sided situation, China's U23s lost 0-2 to South Korea, and their journey to the last eight came to an abrupt end.
This "China-Korea showdown" attracted a lot of attention. Although it is not a battle for the title, the South Korean team as China's traditional rivals, the National Day home loss is certainly unacceptable; South Korea has a lot of star players, their goal is to strive for a third consecutive domination, in order to achieve at least 18 months of exemption from mandatory military service. The match between China and South Korea is always a hot topic of discussion, and this campaign has certainly become one of the highlights of the Asian Games.
Four hours before the match, the journalists left the Asian Games Village and took the shuttle buses arranged by the organizing committee to the Huanglong Sports Center. Media reporters from both China and South Korea gathered together and arrived early. Upon arrival at the stadium, the media reporters once again formed a long line. With 90 photo positions available on the field, the journalists arrived two and a half hours early and managed to register more than 50 people.
Prior to the match, the Chinese and South Korean media reported a lot about the match. Korean media not only called the national football team "Kung Fu Football" in the title of the article, but also mentioned the injury situation of the last match between the two sides, and pointed out that although South Korea has the advantage on the cards, but support for the national soccer team's home momentum and "no false start" goals will pose a challenge; domestic media pointed out that China's U23s have achieved their goal of advancing to the last eight, and that Sina is just trying to play a game. Domestic media pointed out that China's U23s had achieved their goal of reaching the last eight and that South Korea's "mountain" was just an attempt to play a game, while Sina Sports wrote: "A brave victory is in sight".
An hour and a half before the match, the starting lineups of both sides were revealed. With Gao Tianyi and Jiang Shenglong suspended, Dai Weijun continued in goal and Han Jiaqi started. In addition, Liu Yang, Zhu Chenjie, Huang Jiahui, Wang Zhenao, Abraham, Wang Haijian, Tao Qianglong, Zhang Wei and Tan Long were all on the pitch. South Korea's top player, Paris Saint-Germain winger Lee Gang-in, came on as a substitute, Bundesliga Stuttgart's Jung Yu-young did not start, and the most notable of the 11 was Barcelona youth trainee Baek Seung-ho, who scored at last year's World Cup in Qatar and also captained the team, while the rest of the starters included Lee Kwang-won, Hwang, Park, Hong, Cho Yong-wook, Go-young, Lee Han-pang, Song Min-kyu, Ahn Jae-jun and Park.
The game started cautiously for both sides. South Korea had the better of the ball, and after six minutes, a mistake at the back of the Chinese national soccer team gave Gao Ying a chance to shoot, but it went high, while Cao Yongxu's header was blocked by Han Jiaqi. South Korea's offense focused on attacking the left side of the field, and after several quick breakthroughs through the Chinese national soccer team's backline, the ball eventually landed at the feet of Cao Yongxu at the top of the box, but his shot was parried out by Han Jiaqi.
After 18 minutes, South Korea was awarded a penalty kick on the right side of the top of the box and Hong Hyun-seok curled a shot into the near corner to give South Korea a 1-0 lead.South Korea almost scored again on 22 minutes, but Han Jiaqi almost parried the shot.On 24 minutes, China's national soccer team made its first foray into the vicinity of the opponents' penalty area and was awarded its first corner kick, which it failed to turn into an effective attack.On 30 minutes, China's national soccer team got a shot on goal when Dai Weijun dipped a shot from the top of the box.
South Korea scored another goal in the 35th minute when Cho Yong-wook crossed the ball from the right side of the field through two of the Chinese national soccer team's defenders, leaving a defender in front of the goal with a "big miss" and Han Jiaqi unable to touch the ball. As a result, Song Min-gyu, who was at the end of the post, crashed the ball in front of the goal to increase the score to 2-0. Before the half, the Chinese national soccer team took Zhu Chenjie, the main captain who had been suspended for a period of time, and replaced him with He Yupeng. Just before half-time, China's counter-attacks threw South Korea into disarray, with one bouncing off the post and becoming the closest China's national soccer team came to scoring in the first half.
In the second half, the situation did not change much. Although South Korea replaced Jung Yo-young, Lee Gang-in and Yim Sang-won in the 63rd minute, they didn't particularly increase the pressure with a two-goal lead, and the Chinese national soccer team's counterattacks looked weak. With the game tied, the crowd began to leave the stadium around the 70th minute, and in the 74th minute, Han Jiaqi parried Zheng Youying's fastest shot from inside the penalty area. in the 84th minute, the Chinese national soccer team finally got their first shot on goal in the second half, but it was blocked by the opponents. In stoppage time, Li Gangren's penalty shot from the right corner was from too solid an angle, and neither team was able to rewrite the scoreline again. In the end, Korea advanced to the quarterfinals with a 2-0 victory and will compete with Uzbekistan for a place in the final.
