China Are Not Favourites In Group J - Hiddink

PETALING JAYA, March 21 (Bernama) -- China’s Under-21 (U-21) head coach, Guus Hiddink (pix, right) dismissed talks that his team is the hot favourite to win the 2020 Asian Football Confederation (AFC) U-23 Group J qualifier starting Friday at Shah Alam Stadium. The former South Korea and Chelsea manager said, all teams including hosts, Malaysia could create an upset if his charges are taking all three teams in the group for granted as the tournament serves as the first stage of AFC qualifier for 2020 Tokyo Olympics Games. “There is no reason why we are the only outstanding team. Since taking charge of this team, I can see a lot of improvement but they need to work harder to be better.Therefore I can only assess how good the players are through this tournament. “For me, pressure come with the job, but we did not feel the pressure and we do hope to qualify for the final round,” he told a pre-tournament press conference, here, Thursday. On another note, the 72-year-old Dutchman expressed his concern about the fitness level of his players as only a couple of his players are playing regularly with their main teams in the Chinese Super League, while the rest just warming-up the bench. Meanwhile, Laos U-22 head coach, V. Sundramoorthy (pix, 2nd right) said he is upbeat on his team chances to progress to the final round, adding that China are the hot favourites to win Group J based on their track records of having qualified to the final round in three previous editions in 2013, 2016 and 2018. The 53-year-old Singaporean also cautioned about two other teams, Philippines and hosts, Malaysia, who could pose a dangerous threat to their bid to qualify for the final round of the biennial tournament for the first time. “I have been preparing the players for the past two weeks for this tournament. Many of our young players coming up the ranks and hopefully, the players can put up a good performance,” former Singapore international added. (photoBERNAMA) -- BERNAMA