Pre-match speech
U23 China's journey to the final under Antonio Puche's leadership is based on solid defense, while U23 Japan has made an impressive impression in every aspect, with Go Oiwa's team aiming to defend the title and lift the cup for the third time, an unprecedented record.
We are very excited. This is a historic match and a big dream. We want to win the championship even though we know it will be very difficult. Entering the final is already special for us, but now we want to go further.
Our spirit is great and I don't even have words to describe the mental state of the players. We are in good condition, very confident and belief in ourselves is one of the key factors in football," coach Antonio Puche said.
U23 Japan will be a familiar opponent, as the two teams met in the 2024 tournament, while some players of U23 China participated in the squad participating in the AFC U20 Asian Cup Uzbekistan 2023 - a tournament that China lost to all.
Coach Puche also once led the Chinese U20 team to lose to Japan U20 1-2 at the 2023 AFC U20 Championship. He said that in the 2026 AFC U23 Championship final, scoring goals was not too important for China U23.
He emphasized: "The most important thing is the result. Who scores first is not important - the important thing is the final result. We have worked non-stop for the past 24 hours. There is no easy road.
The gap between Japanese and Chinese football is still quite large and we need to be realistic and adapt to the opponent, but we have 23 players and we will definitely fight. We understand the situation but sometimes abnormalities can happen.
On the Japanese U23 side, they scored 12 goals and conceded 1 goal on the way to the final. Coach Oiwa is optimistic that his team will complete the task.
He said: "We came to this tournament with a very young squad and that was a challenge, but we did well. The players are ready and they will play their best.
U23 China is a team with a solid defensive style. Throughout this tournament, they have shown great resilience and I respect them very much. Their players all have different qualities, but we are fully prepared to compete and win in this tournament.
Statistics
This will be the second time U23 China and U23 Japan meet at the AFC U23 Championship, in which Japan won the only victory in the group stage in 2024 with a score of 1-0.
While this is the first time U23 China has reached the final, U23 Japan has done this for the third time. Previously, U23 Japan won the championship in 2016 (won U23 Korea 3-2) and in 2024 (won U23 Uzbekistan 1-0).
U23 China has won two matches in the current tournament - equal to the number of wins they have won in the previous five participations combined. U23 China has kept a clean sheet in all five recent matches, only U23 Saudi Arabia in the 2022 tournament did not concede any goals throughout the campaign.
Goalkeeper Li Hao of U23 China has achieved a 100% save rate at this year's tournament. In the last four tournaments, no other goalkeeper has achieved a 100% save rate (at least 10 shots on target in a tournament).
Ryunosuke Sato of Japan has contributed 5 goals (3 goals, 2 assists) in the current tournament - the most compared to any player.
The U23 Japan vs U23 China match will take place at 10:00 PM on January 24.
