DgcityChina’s under-19 men’s football team began the Panda Cup with a 3-1 victory over Vietnam in Chengdu on Tuesday night, with midfielder Yang Zhanpeng scoring twice in front of a home crowd at the Shuangliu Sports Center.
Yang, who plays his club football for Qingdao West Coast in the Chinese Super League, opened the scoring in the 15th minute with a curling free kick from the left edge of the penalty area that struck the inside of the post on its way in. China controlled possession for long stretches and might have doubled the lead before the break, but Zhang Jiaming, the forward on the books of English club Burnley’s youth setup, hit the post after being sent clean through on the half-hour.
Zhang was denied again by the Vietnamese goalkeeper early in the second half, yet China’s pressure told in the 74th minute when substitute Peng Ziming was fouled inside the area. Yang converted the penalty for his second of the night. Vietnam pulled one back five minutes later through a headed goal from Antonio Moric after a defensive misjudgment, but any hopes of a comeback ended deep in stoppage time when another substitute, Jia Weiwei, arrived in the box to finish Peng’s low cross and seal the three points.
The Panda Cup, held in Chengdu for the ninth time, features four under-19 national teams playing a single round-robin format, with South Korea and Tajikistan completing the field. The two sides shared a 1-1 draw in Tuesday’s other fixture, leaving China alone at the top of the table after the opening round.
The tournament doubles as a key rehearsal for next year’s AFC U20 Asian Cup, which China will host in Hangzhou, Zhejiang Province, in March, and where the team will chase a place at the FIFA U20 World Cup. Head coach Dejan Djurdjevic called up a near full-strength squad for the occasion, including Wei Xiangxin, who is based at French side Auxerre’s youth program, alongside Zhang. The coach acknowledged after the match that his young players had wasted several clear chances and failed to manage the game after going two goals up, describing game control when in front as the area the side most needs to sharpen over the next four months.
China plays Tajikistan on November 14 before closing out the Panda Cup against South Korea on November 17.