AFC Asian Cup Qualifiers Final Round Ends Early, Back to the Champions League to Pad the Stats

Manchester Evening News—If TY did not play in the final match against Oman, he would have a chance to appear in the second leg of the Champions League Round of 16.

"This was obviously the better choice for the player himself, because China had already secured a World Cup berth," said a Manchester Evening News reporter.

With World Cup qualification already guaranteed, returning to secure the Champions League was more important than playing in the qualifiers. There was clearly nothing wrong with the Manchester Evening News reporter's remarks.

But even so, he was quickly rebutted.

The one rebutting him was that familiar pundit, Dawson Jason from Sky Sports in the United Kingdom.

Pundit Jason: TY had already stayed with the national team for the qualifiers. Manchester United had a five-goal lead from the first leg of the Champions League Round of 16, so Erik ten Hag no longer needed help.

Well...

It was hard to say why, but Jason always gave people the feeling that he really wanted to see Erik ten Hag make a fool of himself. It was truly something else.

Yet from an objective standpoint, that line of thought was actually highly unreasonable.

For a renowned manager like Erik ten Hag, who had won the Champions League and several Premier League titles, making a fool of himself was obviously no easy matter.

To avoid appearing biased against Erik ten Hag, Jason went on to analyze the matter in greater depth from the perspective of the China national football team, giving reasons why Tang Ye should remain with the national team.

The first important issue, of course, was the China national football team's FIFA ranking.

A higher FIFA ranking could mean a better group-stage draw.

It was currently difficult to calculate the FIFA points gap between Japan and