After defeating Qatar 2-0, the U17 national team has qualified for the U-17 World Cup for the first time in 21 years, marking China’s men’s football return to a global youth tournament after two decades.
Despite suffering two consecutive losses, the U17 squad only needed a win by two or more goals in the final group match to secure a spot. He Sifan opened the scoring, while substitute Zhang Bolin added a crucial second goal, sealing the team’s qualification for the U-17 World Cup.
Media figure Ding Xu commented, “The U17 boys staged a remarkable comeback and progressed. Well done! Qatar was indeed cooperative. Congratulations again to the U17 team.” Ma Dexing added, “It was bumpy, but the U-17 World Cup, here comes China! Let’s celebrate first, settle accounts later.”
Another media personality, Li Pingkang, noted, “Individual player skills are clearly there, but the overall coordination is really lacking. They need to change the coach quickly for the World Cup!” Xiao Kan remarked, “Chinese football rarely avoids losing on arithmetic problems! Tonight, the stars shine bright.”
Lu Yang observed, “It was a narrow escape. In terms of strength and performance, we are indeed the second-best team in this group. But winning just one match to qualify for the U-17 World Cup is a script we’ve never seen before. Nobody would have predicted this scenario before the tournament. If they only meet this minimum target, the team’s Asian Cup journey cannot be considered successful. I hope in the knockout rounds, they can truly prove themselves and at least show a performance worthy of their talent.”
He added, “Looking back at last year’s preliminary qualifiers, their excellent performance at that level was not a reliable indicator. The real test starts now, and tougher challenges lie ahead. Several players from this team received more votes in last year’s Golden Boy awards than Zhou Xinyi, the outstanding female player from the U-17 Women’s World Cup. I always felt she was somewhat overlooked. I hope our male Golden Boy and Silver Boy winners can repay the trust placed in them with even better performances on the big stage.”