REMINDER: China U-19 plays Qatar U-19 tomorrow morning at 8:30 ET / 5:30 ET. If China wins against Qatar, they'll play either United Arab Emirates or Myanmar in the semifinals.
So there has been two upsets in the first two quarterfinals with Myanmar and North Korea advancing to the semis and a place in the U-20 World Cup next year. Hopefully we can upset Qatar too, but it will be a very tough task.
Unlike all our group matches, we are actually commanding the game with Qatar playing very defensively
Also for the first time we´re at a size disadvantage with the majority of Qatars players being very big and physical. Our players have already gone down a couple of times over tough tackles but fair tackles i must add.
I have to say, I expected a more dominant Qatari team, all three teams in our group looked alot better. China can definately get back into this, but we need to push more men forward, Qatar is defending with 10 men in their own half and we have like 5-6 players attacking only
Zhou Yuchen red carded and Qatar have been awarded a penalty, horrible ending to a dominant first half.
FT: China U-19 lost 4-2 to Qatar U-19. Gui Hong scored in the 54th minute and Wei Jingzong scored in the 86th minute from a penalty. Qatar moves on to the semifinals to play Myanmar while the other semifinal match is between North Korea and Uzbekistan. To be honest, if Zhou Yuchen didn't get himself sent off, then China could've probably won the match. Nevertheless, China U-19 should be proud of themselves because they played a great tournament. There are some bright futures to come for some of the players!!
It's a shame really, we got outplayed in all three group games but somehow managed to qualify, today we were the better team and we lose. That's the reality of football i guess, if only that redcard and penalty in the last minute of the first half didn't happen.....
The consolation we have - at least the side that beat us has gone on to win the U19 cup. Qatar has beaten North Korea 1-0.