The defending champion Chinese women's football team made its 2026 Asian Cup debut yesterday. Facing the first opponent in the group stage, the underdog Bangladesh women's football team, the Chinese women's football team won 2-0 with the goals of Wang Shuang and Zhang Rui. However, this score obviously does not reflect the difference in strength between the two teams, and exposes the Chinese women's football team's lack of firepower and lack of coordination in the midfield and frontcourt.
The Chinese women's football team has an absolute advantage in both physical confrontation and technical ability. They continuously created threatening opportunities soon after the opening, but failed to convert them into goals. Until the 44th minute, Wang Shuang scored with a high-quality long shot to break the deadlock for the Chinese team. In the stoppage time of the first half, Zhang Rui once again scored with a long shot. The Chinese women's football team never scored again, and the score was fixed at 2-0.
"We were a little nervous today and were not able to fully control the rhythm as we usually do in training. Considering that this is the first game of the competition and the atmosphere is very enthusiastic, it is reasonable for this situation to occur. There are many players in today's starting lineup who are inexperienced in international competitions, and they still need time to adapt. "Chinese women's football coach Milicic, who suffered a serious crisis of confidence last year but finally stayed on, defended the team's performance after the game, saying, "No matter what, we won the game and completed a clean sheet. The whole team knows that we must continue to move forward, and we are also convinced that we can perform better."
There are three groups in this Asian Cup. The Chinese women's football team is in Group B with Bangladesh, Uzbekistan and North Korea. After the group stage, the top two teams in each group and the two third-placed teams with the best results will advance to the quarterfinals.
For the Chinese women's football team, the most ideal trend is to advance to the top of the group and face the second place in Group C in the quarter-finals. The Japanese team will definitely lock in the top spot in Group C, and the second place in this group will be Chinese Taipei or Vietnam. If the quarter-finals match against one of these two teams, the prospect of the Chinese women's football team breaking into the semi-finals and locking in qualifications for the World Cup in advance will be very clear. If the Chinese women's football team advances with the second place in Group B, the Chinese women's football team will face the second place in Group A in the quarter-finals, either the Australian team or the South Korean team. No matter who they face, it will be a tough battle.
This first victory exposed many problems of the Chinese women's football team – low offensive efficiency, failure to convert advantageous scenes into more goals, and too many midfield passing errors. If a solution cannot be found, it will be difficult for the Chinese women's football team to compete with the North Korean team for the top spot in the group.
Four years ago, the Chinese women's football team defeated Japan on penalty kicks in the semi-finals, defeated South Korea in the final, and regained the Asian Cup championship after 16 years. Compared with the previous tournament, the Chinese team faces greater challenges and more fierce competition in defending its title this time: the North Korean team, which was absent from the previous tournament, returns strongly, and the strong Australian team will also become an important force in the championship.
In another match in the same group that ended earlier, the North Korean team defeated Uzbekistan 3-0. The North Korean team has won the Asian Cup three times. This tournament is the first time the North Korean team has returned to the Asian Cup since 2010.
