Al Ain: China captain Zheng Zhi believes his side’s vast experience will be a deciding factor when his nation takes on Thailand in the Round of 16 of the AFC Asian Cup UAE 2019 on Sunday evening.
The former AFC Player of the Year and two-time winner of the AFC Champions League leads a China side that is amongst the oldest at the tournament and which boasts a group of players who have been hugely successful at domestic and continental level.
And the Guangzhou Evergrande veteran feels the knowledge that comes with winning crunch games in the AFC Champions League and the Chinese Super League will be key as China seek a spot in the last eight of the competition.
“Every aspect is important and for us it’s important to be in our best physical condition, but the psychological aspect is also important,” said the 38-year-old central midfielder.
“We have much more experience. Experience is very important and we have to be ready for everything. The technical and tactical part is important, but we are confident because we know the coach has decided what is important and he instructed us for the game and we will do what we can to win the game tomorrow.
“What’s most important is the psychological part.”
China most recently played Thailand last year, registering a 2-0 win over the War Elephants in Bangkok in a friendly. But the game that lingers in Chinese minds most is a 5-1 defeat at the hands of the Thais in 2013 which cost then-coach Jose Antonio Camacho his job at the helm of the team.
Zheng, though, believes neither of those meetings will be of any significance when the two nations face off in Al Ain on Sunday.
“I want to say that tomorrow is a very important match, an Asian Cup knockout match and we can’t compare that with the friendly we had five years ago,” he said.
“Even the game last year isn’t important. It doesn't make much sense. This is an Asian Cup match, it is not a friendly. We know now we are ready and we know which type of team we’re going to face tomorrow.
“It’s only three days since the last match against Korea Republic and that was a difficult match, even though it wasn’t important for qualification as we had already made it through. The mood is good amongst the players and we are very confident.
“We are highly motivated and we’ll do our best during the game to achieve the result we want and that will permit us to go to the quarter-finals.”
Source: the-afc.com