The Chinese national team created many opportunities when playing against the Tajikistan national team in the opening match of Group A of the 2024 Asian Cup finals, but their strikers were unable to take advantage of it successfully. In the 80th minute, from a corner kick on the right wing, the Chinese player put the ball into the penalty area for defender Zhu Chenjie (No. 3) to join the attack and run in front of the ball and head it past goalkeeper Rustam Yatimov to open the score.
The referee refused to recognize the goal for the Chinese team after consulting VAR. Photo: FPT.
When the Chinese players hugged each other in celebration and the Tajikistan players looked sad when they conceded a goal at the end of the match, VAR signaled the Saudi Arabian referee, Mr. Mohammed Khled Al Hoish.
After about 3 minutes of directly consulting the VAR screen, referee Mohammed Khled Al Hoish decided not to recognize the goal of the Chinese team.
The reason, he said, was that the number 2 player of the Chinese national team, Browning, was in an offside position and was involved in the ball while standing on the goal line and had an impact (pushed) and obstructed a player. Tajikistan plays football (save).
Chinese media “attacked” the referee, accusing AFC of “retaliation”
Referee Mohammed Khled Al Hoish’s decision immediately caused anger among some Chinese football fans. And the country’s media also expressed dissatisfaction with VAR’s decision in this match.
Titan Sports wrote: “The referee’s decision was forced, because Guangtai had no involvement or intervention in the situation. Clearly the referee had a problem with China.”
Also expressing dissatisfaction with VAR in this match, the Chinese website 163.com had an article titled: “The Chinese football team was robbed. The referee manipulated the match, it’s shameful.” “.
In the content, page 163 states that no foul was found in this goal. However, VAR said that Jiang Guangtai intervened in the situation in an offside position and deprived the Chinese team of the goal.
Page 163.com criticized the referee after the draw with Tajikistan
On Sohu newspaper, many articles criticizing the referee also appeared, with headlines such as “VAR stole China’s 3 points”, “Referee makes Asian football look bad” or “Big controversy broke out, but This is not the first time China has suffered losses from the AFC.”
The opinion of the Chinese media is that the country’s team was deprived of a goal in the opening match of the 2023 Asian Cup due to “retaliation” from the Asian Football Confederation AFC for the country giving up the right to host the tournament. forcing Qatar to stand up and “take responsibility”.
Unable to overcome Tajikistan National Team – the first team participating in the Asian Cup Finals, this has put the Chinese National Team at a disadvantage in the race to continue in Group A. The group situation is expected to remain very unpredictable. in the next matches when all teams have to speed up.
At the end of the first match in Group A, host Qatar ranked first with 3 points and a difference of +3. The two teams, China and Tajikistan, both have 1 point. At the bottom of the table is Lebanon, which has not won any points. In the second match, the Chinese team faced the Lebanese team while the Qatar team faced the Tajikistan team.
The situation where the Chinese team was denied a goal.
