AFC U20 Asian Cup
China PR began their Group A campaign with a 2-1 success against Qatar that showcased Djurdjevic’s desire to play entertaining football with a high-octane performance - particularly in the first half.
#AFCU20 | Group A : China PR 2 - 1 Qatar
“I knew it would be a difficult match but I’m very happy because the first game of any competition is always a little bit nervy,” said the Serbian.
“These players have never played in any international competition the size of this and I’m very happy that we started with a win.
“We started by playing high and pressing high. That is our style because we want to play offensive football to try to score goals and we managed that well.”
China PR flew out of the blocks and were 2-0 up within 17 minutes, thanks to efforts from Kuai Jiwen and Liu Chengyu.
Qatar were put under tremendous pressure for the remainder of the first half before showing signs of life early into the restart, even pulling one back through Mohamed Hani Faragalla.
However, it wasn’t enough to earn them a comeback with head coach Felix Sarriugarte left bemoaning the manner in which his charges began the game.
“We didn’t start well in the first half, we made a couple of mistakes which were capitalised on but in the second half, we showed that we had character and we tried to come back,” said Sarriugarte.
“We scored and pushed but in the end, China won but it’s a pity because we felt that we could have gotten something from the game.”
Next up for China PR are Kyrgyz Republic while Qatar will hope to bounce back against Australia, with both matches to be played on Saturday.
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