China PR finished fifth out of six teams in Group B of the AFC Asian Qualifiers (Road to Qatar) held between September last year and March this year, failing to qualify for the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022™. Although there were high hopes that naturalised players from abroad would improve the team's performance, the team finished with a record of one win, three draws, and six losses. They also lost their two matches against the SAMURAI BLUE (Japan National Team), 0-1, 0-2, after letting their opponents take control of the match.

Their most recent match against Japan was at Saitama Stadium 2002 on 27 January. It was their first match under head coach LI Xiaopeng, who took over in December last year, but they lost 0-2 after conceding goals to OSAKO Yuya and ITO Junya in the 13th and 61st minutes respectively. “We couldn't adapt to their rhythm,” said coach Li, who also tried to find opportunities in the flanks, “but playing under the aggressive pressure applied by the Japanese side, it was extremely difficult.”

The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic cannot be overlooked. Unable to play host matches in their own country, they were forced to play their home matches in other countries, such as Qatar and the UAE. Their FIFA ranking, which was 71st before the start of the AFC Asian Qualifiers, has also slipped to 78th. The pandemic also overshadowed the country's ability to host international competitions, forcing them to make the difficult decision to relinquish their hosting rights for the EAFF E-1 Football Championship 2022 and the AFC Asian Cup, with the latter scheduled to be held next year, and postpone the Asian Games.

For China PR, which did not play during the international match period in June, when Japan and Korea Republic played a series of international friendlies, the EAFF E-1 Football Championship should serve as the first step in their bid to qualify for next year's Asian Cup and the 2026 FIFA World Cup™, which will be their first World Cup appearance since the 2002 FIFA World Cup Korea/Japan™.

In the aforementioned match against Japan, seven of the starting eleven were over 30 years old, with an average age of 29.3. However, most of the players in this tournament were born after 1999, which essentially makes them a U-23 National Team. The team is led by Aleksandar JANKOVIC, a Serbian coach who has led the U-23 national team and is joined by veterans JIANG Guangtai (also known as Tyias BROWNING) and TAN Long, who both played against Japan in January. It will be interesting to see if the young team can turn the tables on AFC heavyweights such as Japan and Korea Republic to become a contender for the East Asian title.

FIFA Ranking: 78th (11th in Asia) *As of 23 June 2022
FIFA World Cup™ Appearance: 1 time, 2002
Japan’s Head-to-head Record: 15 wins, 7 draws, 7 losses (37 goals, 28 conceded)

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