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on september 5, beijing time, in the first match of the fifa 2026 world cup asian qualifiers round of 18 (hereinafter referred to as the "top 18"), the chinese national football team played against japan away.

in the first half, the japanese team took the lead through headers from endo wataru and mitoma kaoru. in the second half, minamino takumi scored two goals, and ito jun'ya, maeda dairan and kubo takefusa scored successively. in the end, the chinese national team lost to the japanese team 0-7.

after losing 0-7, the chinese national football team also set a number of records: the biggest loss to japan; the most goals conceded in a single world cup qualifier; the biggest loss in a world cup qualifier. this is the biggest loss in the history of the chinese national football team. the previous biggest loss came in the friendly match with brazil in 2012, when the chinese national football team lost 0-8 to brazil.

the difference in value between the two teams is obvious

195 million euros vs 6.15 million euros

in this game, ivankovic deployed a 4-4-2 parallel midfield system as expected, with goalkeeper wang dalei and four defenders yang zexiang, jiang guangtai, zhu chenjie and liu yang. these five players are exactly the same as those in the final match against south korea in the round of 36. the four midfielders are xie wenneng, jiang shenglong, li yuanyi and xu haoyang. compared with the china-korea match, li yuanyi, who returned from suspension, replaced wang shangyuan, while wu lei and zhang yuning, who were substitutes due to minor injuries in the china-korea match, returned to the starting lineup in this game, replacing fernando and baiheram. ivan made three adjustments to the starting lineup of the china-korea match, which shows that he was very satisfied with that game.

the japanese team changed its lineup for this game to 3-4-2-1, with endo wataru and morita hidemasa as double defensive midfielders in the midfield, doan ritsu and mitoma kaoru as wingbacks, and kubo takefusa and minamino takumi as shadow strikers behind the single striker ueda yoshiyo.

the german transfer market website shows that the japanese team's starting lineup is worth 195 million euros, while the chinese national team's starting lineup is worth 6.15 million euros. the japanese team's starting lineup is all european players, with the highest value being takefusa kubo at 50 million euros and the lowest being shogo taniguchi at 1.5 million euros. the chinese national team's highest value is wu lei at 1.2 million euros, 300,000 euros lower than shogo taniguchi.

the chinese national football team is at an absolute disadvantage in its historical record against japan. according to statistics from the official website of the chinese football association, the last time the chinese men's football team defeated japan was in the 1998 dynas cup semi-finals, when the chinese national football team beat japan 2-0.

since then, the chinese national football team has not won against japan in 14 games in all competitions, with a total record of 8 losses and 6 draws in 14 games. of course, during this period, the japanese team won the chinese national football team by at most two goals, and never won by more than three goals.

the only shot of the chinese national football team in the first half came from zhang yuning

can't attack, can't defend

the japanese team gradually took control of the game after 10 minutes. in the 11th minute, takefusa kubo made a cross from the left rib, and ritsu doan headed the ball in the middle of the penalty area, but wang dalei saved it. taking advantage of this corner kick, in the 12th minute, the japanese team played a pick-and-roll cooperation, and endo wataru, who was not guarded, easily headed the ball into the goal in a huge open space.

in the third minute of injury time in the first half, takefusa kubo passed the ball back, ritsu doan made a diagonal pass to the back post from the left rib, and kaoru mitoma headed the ball from a small angle and the ball bounced into the net. the japanese team went into the half-time break with a score of 2-0.

technical statistics at halftime showed that the chinese national team had only one shot - zhang yuning's long-range shot from outside the penalty area was incomprehensible, and the ball possession rate was only 25%; while the japanese team had 9 shots, 4 of which were on target, and the pass success rate was 89%, much higher than the chinese national team's 65%. in addition, yang zexiang and zhang yuning received yellow cards in the game.

fan zhiyi, who was watching the game live, sighed: "it was too easy for the opponent to score in this game. if it weren't for the distance, i really wanted to jump into the huangpu river. we can accept you losing to japan, but letting the opponent score so easily is really too bad."

at the beginning of the second half, ivan replaced xie wenneng with gao zhunyi, and the chinese national team changed its formation to 5-3-2. however, the change did not bring any substantial changes. in the 52nd minute of the second half, takumi minamino dribbled past jiang shenglong in the penalty area and scored with his right foot in the far corner, giving japan a 3-0 lead. six minutes later, takumi minamino made a comeback. he dribbled in front of the penalty area and shot low to score, once again breaking through wang dalei's ten fingers. after losing the ball, wang dalei sat on the ground for a long time without getting up.

but the japanese team's goals were not over yet. in the 77th minute, ito junya took a step inside the penalty area and shot with his left foot. the ball hit empress jiang guang and deflected into the net. in the 87th minute, ito junya assisted maeda dairan to score with a header. in the last minute of injury time, kubo takefusa scored.

in the end, the chinese national football team suffered a crushing defeat in the first match of the round of 18, losing 0-7 to the japanese team.

after the game, chinese national football player zhang yuning was interviewed on the sidelines. when asked about the topic of "where is the gap", he said: "it is reflected in the score. the gap between chinese and japanese football. we will try to play better when we return to our home court."

when asked about how to prepare for the next game, zhang yuning said: "try to get out of this game. the game is long and we have to fight one game at a time."

【comment】

the national football team suffered a disastrous defeat.

a belated "correction of football historical nihilism"

in the 2026 mexico city world cup asian qualifiers, the chinese men's football team lost 0-7 to japan in the first away game, setting a record for the largest score difference in the history of the two teams.

in the 20 years since december 2003, china and japan have played 13 national-level men's football matches, with japan winning 7, drawing 5 and losing 1. the last time japan lost to china was in the east asian games in november 2005. in the nine matches since then, japan has never lost. but the strange thing is that in all these years, japan has been limited to scoring three goals and winning by two goals, and china has never suffered a tragic defeat with a net loss of more than three goals.

as a result, there are many very mysterious and presumptuous illusions - "the japanese team's technology has no advantage over the chinese team", "passing and controlling football is nothing more than that", "as long as the chinese team defends well, they still have a chance."

to be honest, in the past 20 years, comparing the merits and demerits of china and japan in the football industry, the development of football, the football population, and the football image, a full lineup of european stars can beat germany and spain, but cannot show an advantage in the score against the chinese team. is this reasonable? is this normal?

now, in a game where the japanese team did not seem to be trying hard and the chinese team had tried their best, an insulting score was used to inflict damage all at once.

the winning and losing relationship in competitive sports can be roughly divided into four states: i can beat you every time, i can never lose to you, i can never beat you, and i lose to you every time. in the first and fourth states, the interaction psychology and self-cognition of the two teams will hardly deviate. i know whether i can do it, and i also know whether you can do it.

however, the second and third states sometimes cause cognitive biases in one or both parties. the party that has been winning small games for a long time and remains undefeated will think that their advantage is not big enough and will always be cautious and work hard; the party that has been losing small games for a long time and has not won a game will think that they are very close to winning once, and if they are in better condition or have better luck, they may have a chance to eat dumplings occasionally.

the rise of japanese football is the result of decades of systematic construction, the improvement of the youth training system, the continuous improvement of the league level, and the comprehensive cultivation of the players' personal abilities. they attach importance to the basics and details, regard football as a systematic project, start from the childhood, and gradually build a strong football pyramid.

as for chinese football, forget it, let’s not talk about it… hundreds of millions of fans watched them move from the sports channel to the legal channel, and from live broadcast to a warning documentary.

the crueler reality than the score of 0-7 is that the round of 18 of the world cup qualifiers is already the highest-level event where we can meet the japanese team. we play in the round of 18 because we have tried our best to reach the round of 18, and it may remain so for many sessions in the future; japan plays in the round of 18 because they must participate in the round of 18 in asia before they can compete for the qualification for the quarterfinals and semi-finals of the world cup.

when the class test papers were handed out, the top student said to the poor student: you got 60 points because you can only get 60 points, and i got 100 points because the test paper is only worth 100 points.

therefore, this tragic defeat, which should have happened long ago, is a correction to the "impression of historical nihilism" that the chinese men's football team has had many small losses and draws against japan in the past 20 years, and the gap seemed not to be big enough.

【related news】

cctv sports channel did not broadcast this game live. despite the criticism, many fans still choose to pay to watch the national football team's game.

it was shown online that "9 yuan membership required" to watch the game for free, but many fans said they could not watch it even with membership.

many fans choose to pay to watch the national football team's games

"i bought a voucher but can't redeem it and watch it. it's so frustrating! is it the same for everyone?" "i paid for two vouchers today and still watched less than ten minutes!" "what's the point of having to spend more money after charging and redeeming it?"

i wonder if the fans who paid for the membership regret it...

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