With the end of the 2023 Chinese Super League season, Chinese football has once again entered a new four-year cycle of "World Cup time" - Serbian coach Jankovic's Chinese men's football team is about to embark on their 13th journey to compete in the World Cup.

First Battle in Thailand: Persist in Putting Me First

The 2026 US Canada Mexico World Cup will expand to 48 participating teams, and the admission ticket for the Asian region will increase from 5.5 to 8.5 seats. At present, the Chinese team is divided into Group C in the round of 36, with the other three opponents being South Korea, Thailand, and Singapore. According to the rules, the top two teams in the group will advance to the third stage, which is the round of 18. As expected, South Korea will occupy the first place in the group, while the Chinese team needs to suppress the Thai and Singapore teams and seize the precious spot of second place in the group.

China, South Korea, Thailand, and Singapore are grouped together and need to ensure second place in the group to advance.

On November 16th, the Chinese national football team made their debut in the Asian qualifiers of the 2024 US Canada Mexico World Cup, playing away against the rapidly improving Thai team; In the second round of the group stage on November 21st, the Chinese national football team will return to their home ground in Shenzhen, China, to challenge the strong South Korean team. For a relatively weak Chinese national football team, it is crucial to start well, especially in the first game against the Thai team. Only by ensuring an unbeaten position can we have the initiative to advance to the top 18 in the Asian region.

Last month, the Thai team went to Europe for training, but lost 0-8 to the Georgian team and drew 1-1 with the Estonian team. The last time the Chinese team played against the Thai team in a formal match was in 2019. Speaking of this opponent whom he had not met in many years, Yankovic said that he understands everything about the Thai team and that the game should be dominated by himself.

"We have a comprehensive understanding of the Thai team, and they have two different ways of playing. They have played some decent warm-up matches, and they have players' experience playing in Europe. The team has just gone to Europe to play two games recently. I have all the information, but I will choose the necessary information to tell the team, and then I will stick to being the main player. We should try our best to stick to our game style and let the Thai team adapt to us."

In February of this year, the Chinese Football Association announced that Jankovic had been appointed as the head coach of the national football team. So far, he has led the team in 8 warm-up matches, achieving a record of 3 wins, 2 draws, and 3 losses. However, the warm-up match is ultimately a warm-up match, and the value of victory and defeat is limited. The real test of Yankovic's ability is the match between the World Cup qualifiers and top Asian opponents.

The South Korean team is not only a top team in Asia, but also a top team worldwide. The individual abilities of players, team stability, and confidence in the game are all top-notch. This is a huge challenge for us. But we play football to win, and this is our first home World Cup qualifier, which is important to us. We must show an extraordinary mental state, compete with opponents in terms of mentality and desire to win, and unite together Let's fight before we can say that we look forward to achieving good results. When I say a good result, I mean winning Yankovic said.