As the Under-19 national youth team remains unbeaten, Djurdjevic is more focused on growth

Reporter Nannan Shanxi Changzhi reports On the evening of the 10th, at the Shanxi Changzhi Sports Center, the U19 national team, cheered on by 10,585 spectators, defeated Iran U19 2-0 and won the first of the series invitational matches between the two teams. The victory also extended Djurdjevic's unbeaten run since taking over the Under-19 team to five wins and three draws.

In this game, Djurdjevic used the 4231 formation, and in the starting lineup, he chose to use as many as six players from Shandong Taishan B team. In addition to the captain and central defender Shi Songchen, goalkeeper Liu Qiwei, central defender Peng Xiao, left back Yu Sufu · Amuti, and two defenders Chen Zeshi and Yi Mulan· Maimaiti are all from Shandong Taishan B team. At right-back, Shijiazhuang Kung Fu's Xu Junchi started the game, while the frontcourt combination consisted of Wang Yifan (Shanghai Shenhua U21), Min Zixi (Wuhan Three Towns U21) and Mao Weijie and Zhu Pengyu (Dalian InBev).

After withstanding the impact of Iran's opening, China's U19s played a delicate group advance in a quick counterattack, and finally Yusufu · Amuti went straight to the ball, Wang Yifan received the ball and smashed into the box from the left side, and a bicycle shook off the angle and scored with a left-footed volley into the far corner of the goal. After scoring early, the trend of the game in the first half was firmly in the hands of China U19, and the team's formation was constantly switching between 442 and 4231, and Min Zixi continued to step forward and interfere with Zhu Pengyu in the opponent's backcourt. The four players from Shandong Taishan B team, Chen Zeshi, Yimulan · Mamat, and central defenders Shi Songchen and Peng Xiao performed brilliantly, especially the double midfielders firmly controlled the key areas of the midfield, making Iran's U19 forward push repeatedly frustrated.

In the 33rd minute, Min Zixi's corner kick was pushed out of the danger area by the opposing defender, and Mao Weijie volleyed in front of the big penalty area, hitting a world wave to break the Iran U19 goal, and the score was expanded to 2-0. It was his first goal for the national youth team. After the game, Mao Weijie thanked all the fans who supported the team on his social media. Since then, China's Under-19s have continued to exploit the flanks and hit the post once in the middle of the net. Throughout the first half, Iran only used a free kick in stoppage time to complete a non-threatening header, while China U19 had 58% possession and 6 shots on goal, which is rare in recent games for China U19.

After half-time, Djurdjevic made a change, Huang Ming from Shanghai Shenhua U21 replaced Min Zixi, and Du Yuezheng, the only foreign player in this training camp and just announced his joining to Spain's club Marbella, replaced center forward Zhu Pengyu. Iran's U19s, although they did not make personnel changes, showed a completely different fighting force than in the first half. After strengthening the high pressing in the frontcourt, the Iran quickly formed a suppression of China's U19s. Under the opponent's obviously improved confrontation and wing impact, the Chinese U19 defense began to make mistakes, with central defender Shi Songchen and right wingback Xu Junchi rising to the top one after another. Goalkeeper Liu Qiwei made two key saves to keep the goal intact. In the end, with a disadvantage of 1 to 11 shots on goal in the second half, China U19 won with two goals in the first half.

After the game, coach Djurdjevic said he wanted to win every game, but what he was more interested in at this stage was the performance and improvement of his players in different positions. 'We brought on a lot of new players for this game and wanted to see how they did in international competitions because playing at club level is completely different from playing internationally. Xuan Zhijian, who hails from Yanbian Longding, played at left-back for the club and appeared as a left winger after coming off the bench in this game. In addition, the team also focused on strengthening the training of wing attacks in this training camp. Judging from the first game between the two sides, both Amuti and Xu Junchi were very resolute in attacking, and the two full-backs often pressed forward parallel to the wingers in the first half, which also compressed Iran's U19 defense to a certain extent.

In addition, Djurdjevic also stressed that the team needs to constantly correct mistakes in the game, which is more important than the result. 'Overall, I'm satisfied, we played well in the first half, we didn't play very well in the second half, we exposed problems, that's part of football, it's not perfect,' he said. Actually, I'm glad that we made some mistakes, which allows us to improve in time. As for the unbeaten record since taking charge of the Under-19 national team, the Serbian does not value it, he does not care too much about the result of the game at this stage, and he believes that sometimes players can also get the growth they want from defeat.

The Iran team that came to Shanxi this time is not the strongest team in this age group in Iran. As the Iran league is still ongoing, the Iran Football Association has only selected 18 players from the major club echelons, including four goalkeepers. Speaking after the game, the Iran coach said: "A lot of our players are playing in the domestic league and can't come here, so we decided to give new players a chance, many of whom are playing international for the first time. Iran also suffered injury attrition in this game and will only have 13 players available for the next game apart from the goalkeeper.

Iran U19 is not the strongest team, China U19 also has players of appropriate age who have not been called up, Changchun Yatai's left-back He Yiran and Shanghai Shenhua's Liu Chengyu are temporarily absent from the team. Because of this, Djurdjevic also wants to use these two invitational tournaments to give new players a chance. 'We still have some first-team players who haven't been there, so it gives the new players plenty of room to perform and some players might take advantage of the opportunity to grow and be part of our squad. Speaking at his post-match press conference, Djurdjevic said: "We will have better players and we will have better teams. "Since the beginning, the Chinese Football Association has been looking for high-quality warm-up opponents for the preparation of U19. The players of this training camp also understand the importance of the U20 Asian Cup in local combat. Zhu Pengyu said: "At the beginning of the training camp, the head coach told us to treat every training session with all our strength and prepare for next year's main competition. "The two sides will meet for the second time at the same venue on Tuesday night, when Djurdjevic may give more players the opportunity to perform in official matches.