At 8:00 pm Beijing time tonight, the Chinese national men's football team will welcome the first home game of the 2026 US Canada Mexico World Cup qualifiers in the Asian quarter finals at the Shenzhen Universiade Center Stadium, against the South Korean team.

Due to a 2-1 away victory over Thailand in the opening game of the group stage, the popularity of the Chinese national football team suddenly increased. Despite a significant gap in strength compared to the South Korean team, countless fans still hope that the Chinese national football team can defeat their arch rivals like they did in Changsha in 2017.

The first battle started with a good start

Suddenly heating up the popularity of the national football team

On November 16th, Chinese player Wei Shihao (right) scored a goal in a match against Thailand. Shen Jizhong

At the beginning of 2022, the Chinese men's football team lost 1-3 away to Vietnam in the Asian quarter finals of the World Cup qualifiers, ending their disappointing journey to compete in the 2022 Qatar World Cup. In the following period, the Chinese national football team almost lost its popularity. Although the team has also organized some training sessions and matches, their performance is not ideal, which has left fans with little confidence in the new World Cup qualifiers of the Chinese national football team.

In the previous group draw, the Chinese team was grouped with the South Korean team, Thai team, and Singapore team in the round of 36 in the Asian region. At this stage, only the top two teams in the group can advance (enter the round of 18), and given the experience of the Chinese national team losing to Vietnam in the last World Cup qualifiers, many fans believe that if the Chinese national team makes a mistake in competition with Thailand, it will hastily end its 13th attempt to compete for the World Cup.

Facing countless skeptical gazes, the Chinese national football team low-key set out for Bangkok. At the beginning of the match against the Thai team, as expected by the outside world, today's Chinese national football team was unable to engage in a evenly matched "positional battle" with the Thai team, and midfield control was quickly taken over by the Thai team. The opponent also scored their first goal smoothly.

Under the seemingly unfavorable situation, the situation is quietly reversing. The Thai team triumphantly pushed forward, but unexpectedly fell into the trap of the Chinese team's defensive counterattack. Wei Shihao's breakthrough cross after intercepting the ball in the front court helped Wu Lei equalize the score. In the second half, Xie Pengfei, who came on as a substitute, took advantage of the opponent's guard's carelessness in clearing the ball and once again intercepted the ball in the penalty area. With a clever pass, he helped Wang Shangyuan head the ball into an empty goal. The Chinese team completed a 2-1 comeback and responded to all doubts and coldness with victory.

The Chinese national football team is like this, always making fans hate and love each other. After returning from Bangkok to Shenzhen, the popularity of the Chinese national football team suddenly increased, and reports about the team began to spread widely. Tickets were also sold out at an astonishing speed. The performance of the national football team in the China South Korea match on November 21st has become increasingly anticipated.

Can we replicate the achievements of 2017?

The last time the Chinese national team defeated the South Korean team can be traced back to March 2017. That was a match in the Asian quarter finals of the 2018 World Cup qualifiers in Russia. The newly appointed Chinese team, led by Lippi, held their home ground in Changsha and defeated the South Korean team 1-0. This was also the first time the Chinese team had defeated the South Korean team in a World Cup qualifier.

Moving forward, in the history of the confrontation between China and South Korea, the Chinese team had never defeated their opponents for 32 years.