This weekend, the final of the China Football Association Cup, the annual finale of Chinese football, ended with Shanghai Shenhua's 1:0 victory over Mount Taishan in Shandong. The fierce rivalry between the two teams in the Suzhou Olympic Sports Center and the competition between the coaches on the spot made the final of the Football Association Cup show a rare level - the head coach of the national football team Jankovic has returned to Europe for vacation, but the performance of many international players of the two teams is still his focus: Shanghai Shenhua Team Jiang Shenglong, Zhu Chenjie and Wu Xi played well, Dai Weijun also came on as a substitute at the last minute of the game, and Shandong Mount Taishan Team Liu Yang, Liu Binbin Chen Pu and Wang Dalei also have significant effects. If nothing unexpected happens, the aforementioned international players from both teams will still be included in the national football team's training list for the Asian Cup in mid December.

Starting from this week, the Chinese national football team has ushered in a nearly 3-week adjustment period, with only a few national players having tasks in the AFC Champions League, and most players finally being able to enjoy a brief vacation. According to the team schedule, the new training session for the Chinese national football team will take place on December 17th. The team will gather in Shanghai and then fly to the United Arab Emirates for a 3-week training session. The 2023 Asian Cup, which was originally scheduled to take place in China, will be rescheduled to Qatar on January 12th, 2024. Prior to the match, multiple teams will travel to the UAE to prepare for the warm-up match, which is beneficial for each team to search for warm-up opponents. The Chinese national football team plans to complete three international warm-up matches before transferring to Qatar in early January, and the warm-up opponents are currently in contact.

On November 16th, they defeated Thailand 2-1 away, and on November 21st, they lost 0-3 to South Korea at home. After the first two rounds of the 2026 US Canada Mexico World Cup Asian quarter finals, the Chinese national football team ended their 2023 annual competition. Although they temporarily ranked third in the group after Thailand due to a goal difference disadvantage, their victory of accumulating 3 points in the two rounds and defeating Thailand in the away game to suppress their direct competitors has already laid the foundation for the Chinese national football team to break through in the quarter finals The foundation for advancing to the next stage of the round of 18.

According to the World Cup qualifier format, the last four rounds of the Asian region's top 36 matches will take place in March and June 2024 (with Singapore playing away in March and Thailand playing away against South Korea in June). Therefore, the upcoming Asian Cup in Qatar in January next year will be the best practical training opportunity for the Chinese national team to compete in the World Cup qualifiers before the Asian region's top 18 matches: the Asian Cup has three group stage matches, with the Chinese team facing Tajikistan The Lebanon and Qatar teams, including Tajikistan and Qatar, both have the strength of the round of 18 and may also become opponents of the Chinese national football team in the group stage after advancing to the round of 18. The value of the confrontation is self-evident.

Due to the qualified performance of the Chinese national football team in the last two important matches of 2023, it provided the most valuable and relaxed environment for the team to compete in the Asian Cup, allowing the preparation work for the Asian Cup to proceed smoothly without any interference.

Our team is already on the right path, and of course, there are still issues that need to be corrected. However, the experience we have gained will have a positive impact on the Asian Cup.