August 21, the latest roster for the national team was announced, with players such as Wu Lei and Alan included.
Regarding this, media figure Yuan Jia commented on social media, “Ivančović really holds a grudge, absolutely not wanting Gao Tianyi. Interesting, Wu Xi and Gao Tianyi, who are mainstays in Shenhua’s midfield, were not selected, instead their substitutes Wang Haijian, Xie Pengfei, and Xu Haoyang were (Xu has recently been a mainstay as a fullback but would still be a substitute when playing in midfield to these two).”