The mountain of South Korea was still too high for Aleksandar Jankovic’s Chinese national team.
The Chinese national team fell to a 0-3 defeat against the South Korean national team in the second match of Group C of the 2026 North American (co-hosted by Canada, Mexico, and the United States) World Cup Asia Second Qualifying Round at the Shenzhen Universiade Sports Center in Shenzhen, China on Monday (July 21).
China was coming off a dramatic come-from-behind win over Thailand, but it wasn’t enough to overcome the South Koreans.
South Korea took control of the game through captain Son Heung-min. Heung-min opened the scoring in the 11th minute, converting a penalty kick from Hwang Hee-chan, and rattled the Chinese net again in the 45th minute when he redirected a Lee Kang-in corner kick from the near post. Then, in the 42nd minute, Son Heung-min’s free kick was headed home by Jung Seung-hyun for the third goal and the victory over China.
Speaking to the media at the post-match press conference, Coach Jankovic said, “First of all, I would like to thank the fans for their support. Congratulations to Korea for the win. We played a high level of football, both as a team and individually, with confidence and good technique. In a match like this, you have to be perfect in everything. We have to be perfect in everything in a game like this because the best teams bite and punish us for every mistake we make,” he said, praising and congratulating South Korea as a top-notch team.
He praised and congratulated South Korea, saying they are a top-notch team and capable of reaching the World Cup quarterfinals 토토사이트.
“Before the match, we mentioned that Korea is strong and often competes at the highest level,” Jankovic said. I wouldn’t be surprised if they reach the World Cup semifinals. They regularly improve their competitiveness, they are confident and have top-notch individual abilities,” he said, describing the Korean national team as very high quality.
Jankovic was disappointed that South Korea conceded an early goal that put the game out of reach. “When you concede a goal early in the first half and then add another at the end of the first half, it’s very difficult to come back,” he said. “Even though we lost, there were a lot of things that made us look forward to the future, such as our ability to withstand Korea’s intense pressure and retain possession of the ball,” he said.
“If we continue to play at this level, we will gain experience and grow in confidence,” he said, emphasizing the importance of learning from defeat.
