China's U23 men's football team defeated Uzbekistan on penalty kicks and won the Asian Games bronze medal

(Deutsche Welle Chinese website) China's U23 men's football team defeated Uzbekistan 4-3 through a penalty kick in the bronze medal match of the Asian Games men's football team this Saturday (October 3), and stood on the Asian Games men's football podium. Antonio Puche, the head coach of the Chinese team, said: "In my opinion, they have a very bright future. We need to continue to work and continue to push them to grow, because we have a group of players with excellent quality and tenacity, which is crucial in football."

The Chinese men's football team, which has long been regarded as having unsatisfactory results, has only reached the World Cup finals once in 2002. And just on Friday, October 2, the Chinese national football team suffered a 0-5 defeat at home to Palestine.

However, in recent years, Chinese football has achieved some relatively outstanding results at the youth level. In February this year, the Chinese U23 team won the runner-up in the U23 Asian Cup; now it has won the bronze medal at the Asian Games in Japan.

The Asian Games football team lineup is mainly composed of U23 players, and each team can recruit up to three over-age players. This time, the Chinese team tied with Uzbekistan 2-2 in regular time, and finally won in a penalty shootout. Spanish head coach Antonio said he believes this new generation of players can achieve greater achievements in the future. This game also attracted a large number of attention and comments from netizens. Some people lamented: "The teenagers have given us a long-lost glory." Others said: "The adult team will be disbanded directly and let U23 go directly." Others said: "If the so-called celebrities of the Chinese men's football team become the U23 coach, will the U23 enter the Asian Games semi-finals and win the bronze medal after 24 years? A coach who teaches according to his aptitude is so important! Antonio is fully capable of leading the Chinese men's football team into the World Cup!"

The Chinese men's football team has never won an Asian Games men's football gold medal. They won the bronze medal in the men's football team at the Asian Games in 1978 and 1998, and the silver medal at the 1994 Hiroshima Asian Games.