At 23:00 on March 24, Beijing time, the third stage of the 2022 Qatar World Cup Asian qualifiers and the ninth round of Group B of the top 12 will start a competition. At the neutral Sharjah Stadium, the Chinese men’s national football team will face group leaders Saudi Arabia. After the humiliating early exit, the last two battles of the national football team will be fighting for “face”. In the face of a powerful Saudi team with a strong will to cross the line, whether Li Xiaopeng and his team will not lose face and play a national team should be the biggest attraction of this game.
On the last international match day, the national football team lost 0-2 to Japan and 1-3 to Vietnam, especially after losing to the vice squad leader Vietnam on the first day of the new year. The round missed the Qatar World Cup finals. This result has caused a wave of “breaking circle” discussions on the Internet recently, and Chinese football has therefore attracted attention from the outside world in a unique way.
Returning to the national football team, Chen Xuyuan, chairman of the Chinese Football Association, still personally accompanied the team to West Asia this time, and also stated that he would not make any performance requirements for the team. In the current football environment of internal and external troubles, it seems to be decompressing the men’s national football team led by Li Xiaopeng, and the current “Li Jiajun” may really not be counted on.
Except for Jiang Guangtai, the other four naturalized players are all absent, the top scorer Wu Lei in the world preliminaries has not been called up, and Li Lei, who has just stayed abroad, is also injured and has a high exemption card, which further frustrates the already weak lineup. Some of the selected internationals are inevitably affected by the domestic football that is now in all kinds of troubles. It’s really difficult to want such a team to play a reborn game!
Before the expedition, the national football team had a period of training in Haikou, during which three warm-up matches were held. The opponents of the first two warm-up matches were Changchun Yatai, which ended 1-1 and 5-0 respectively. The U23 national team warmed up and won 2-0 again. Liao Lisheng, Zhang Yuning, Zhu Chenjie, Tan Long, Zhang Xizhe, Wu Xi, Liu Yang and Gao Tianyi scored for the national football team.
Teenager Dai Weijun started three warm-up games and seems to have secured his main position. After all, Wu Xi will be suspended due to accumulated yellow cards in the match against Saudi Arabia. Overall, this team is top-heavy, and only Zhang Yuning and Tan Long can really play forward. This seems to reveal that head coach Li Xiaopeng intends to avoid the possibility of a losing streak and a collapse in the last two games. The lack of a threat to the opponent in the midfield and frontcourt may have the opposite result than expected.
It is worth mentioning that during the training camp and warm-up match, the coaching staff focused on practicing the three-center defender system. The 343 formation was used the most, and 541 and 352 were also tried. Previously, Li Xiaopeng led the national team in the first two games. With a score of 4231, it seems that he wants to change to survive, and strive to win the first point he leads the men’s national football team or even….
The opponent of the national football team in the penultimate round of the 12 rounds is the leader of Group B, Saudi Arabia. They have 6 wins, 1 draw and 1 loss in the first 8 rounds with 19 points (the national football team has 1 win, 2 draws and 5 losses with 5 points), which is higher than the Japanese team. One more point. Since this round of direct confrontation between the Japanese team and the Australian team means that as long as the Saudi team takes all three points in the game with the national football team, they can ensure an early qualifying round. In the round at home against the Australian team, in order to avoid Ye Changmeng playing more of the national football team, they are bound to go all out.
For the Saudi team, their lineup is also incomplete. The 21-year-old striker Brykan did not go out with the team because of a persistent fever. Saudi media reported that the team doctor has been in contact with him, and he is also actively receiving treatment in Riyadh, but the head coach Renard has already excluded it from the squad with the Chinese team. If Brycan is absent, it is worth noting whether the Saudi team has a double striker or no striker. In addition, the Saudi media also pointed out that the team should take precautions against the speed of the Chinese team, and they should be careful to prevent them from attacking and hitting the ball behind. It can be seen that this Group B leader is ready to cross the line.
In the face of opponents who have an urgent desire to advance, without the right time, place and blessings, and their skills are not as good, whether Li Xiaopeng and his team have the will to play a national team on the court. Don’t be passive, try to strike a balance between offense and defense, and even if you don’t get three points, you will leave a way out for yourself, so that fans can see that there is still a glimmer of hope in Chinese football. (Cho Oyu)Return to Sohu, see more
Editor:
Disclaimer: The opinions of this article only represent the author himself, Sohu is an information publishing platform, and Sohu only provides information storage space services.