In order to show their great confidence in this final, the Dragon Country team specially arranged a number of public training sessions before the game, so that fans could witness the relaxed state of the players in preparation.

However, as the finals approached, the hearts of Dragon Kingdom fans inevitably rose!

The Asian Cup is held every four years, and now it is the 17th, and the Dragon Team has been participating since 1976, and it is the twelfth time to participate in this Asian Cup!

In the previous 11 Asian Cups, the overall record of the Dragon Country team was not bad, with a total of two runners-up (second place), two third place (third place), two third place (fourth place), and the remaining five times to stop in the quarterfinals twice, and three times were eliminated in the group stage.

In 2007 and 2011, two consecutive group stage exits, and in the 2015 Australian Asian Cup, although the group stage was won three times and the group was the first to qualify, the quarterfinals were completely defeated by the host, which is also the eventual champion of the tournament, and stopped in the quarterfinals.

Therefore, among the current batch of players of the Dragon Country team, only Zheng Zhi, who is 38 years old, has the experience of participating in such an important competition as the Asian Cup final.

The opponent of the Dragon Country team in this game, the Japanese team, is the champion of the 2011 Asian Cup, there are many players in the team, participated in that final, lifted the Asian Cup, and also participated in the 2013 Confederations Cup, as well as the 2014 and 2018 World Cups, the competition experience is quite rich.

Therefore, although the age of the main squad of the Dragon Country team is older than that of the Japanese team, it cannot be compared with the Japanese team in terms of competition experience.

This is a disadvantage of the Dragon Nation team.

However, the Dragons are confident that they will overcome this!

There are too many factors that can affect the final outcome of a football match, and game experience is only one of them, and it is not the most important point, so the Dragon Nation team is not particularly worried about this.

In addition to the lack of experience in the competition and the average age of the players, the Dragon Country team also occupies a lot of advantages in the comparison with the Japanese team.

The most outstanding point is the competitive state of the players.

The state of the Dragon Country team in the previous six games in this Asian Cup, the word "good" is no longer enough to describe it, it is simply amazing!

Not only Shen Feng is in good condition, but the other players are also in very good condition, including Fan Xiaodong, Maitijiang and others, who started for the first time on behalf of the Dragon Country team in the semi-finals with the UAE team in the last game, also maintain a very good competitive state.

This gave Lippi, the head coach of the Dragon Country team, a greater choice in the arrangement of troops.

has reached the final level, of course, the Dragon Country team will not make any reservations, and is not even ready to play overtime and penalty shootouts, and strive to solve the battle within 90 minutes of regular game time!

Everyone was expecting what kind of starting lineup Lippi would make for this game, but this time Lippi was quite calm and cautious, and it was not announced until the last moment of the AFC's mandated announcement of the starting line-up - an hour and a half before the official start of the game.

In this game, the Dragon Country team still discharged a 4-4-2 balanced offensive and defensive formation, and the starting forward partners, there is no doubt that they are still Shen Feng and Wu Lei.

The combination of the two of them, after the test of this Asian Cup, has not only been the top level in Asia, but also has a certain competitiveness in the world.

In terms of midfield, it is still the world of veterans and Mesozoic generations, there is no position for young players, four players, using a diamond-shaped position, Zhang Xizhe in the front position, Zheng Zhi in the back position, Hao Junmin on the left, and Fan Xiaodong on the right - Fan Xiaodong won himself the opportunity to start in this final with his outstanding performance in the last semi-final.

In terms of midfield, it can be said that the Dragon Team has the most talent reserves, but it is the most worrying front, because the young players in the two age groups of 95 and 97 have not yet emerged enough to shoulder the responsibility of the Dragon Team as the midfield commander in the next ten years.

However, the Mesozoic Generation, represented by Zhang Xizhe and Maitijiang, has now matured, and with their age, they can last for a few more years, and I believe that after the end of the 2022 Qatar World Cup, and in the next World Cup cycle, the football talents of the Dragon Kingdom will usher in a comprehensive outbreak.

At that time, the Dragon Country team will no longer worry about the lack of talents, but will have to worry about how to choose the best of the best.

On the guard line, there is a combination of three generations of old, middle and young people, with an age span from 85 years of Feng Xiaoting, to 89 years of Zhang Linpeng, to 93 years of Shi Ke, and finally to 95 years of Deng Hanwen, there are both experienced veterans and young players who dare to fight, and the age structure is the most reasonable.

The goalkeeper is still Yan Junling, who has not had many opportunities to perform in this Asian Cup, but has been playing very steadily.

This starting lineup of the Dragon Country team, compared with the previous games, has not changed much, and it is basically the strongest lineup of the Dragon Country team at present!

On the Japanese side, the team also played with the strongest lineup, with Shinji Kagawa, Shinji Okazaki, Keisuke Honda, Maya Yoshida, Yuya Osako and other well-known big-name players all playing.

The current main lineup of the Japanese team is basically the same as the main lineup that advanced to the round of 16 in last year's World Cup, and many of them participated in the final of the 2011 Asian Cup.

In fact, the main lineup of the Japanese team is not young by virtue of its age, and it is even older than the starting lineup of the Dragon Country team in this game.

In the starting lineup of the Dragon Country team, although there is Zheng Zhi, who is over 38 years old, there is also Shen Feng, who was born in 97 and is not yet 21 years old.

In this main lineup of the Japanese team, it can be said that it is still dominated by the post-80s, and among the players in the two age groups of 95 and 97, there are no outstanding players who can replace these long-famous predecessors at this stage.

However, among the players in the 98, 99, and 00 age groups, there are several talented players, which are the talents that the Japanese team has reserved for the 2020 Olympic Games to be held in their home country.

Although those players are all in the squad of the Japanese team for this Asian Cup, they are not scheduled to play in this game.

Those players will be Shen Feng's main opponents in Asia in the next ten years, Shen Feng wants to meet them as soon as possible and compete, but unfortunately at present, this opportunity may have to wait until the U23 Asian Cup later.