Before the game, the starting list announced by the Chinese national team was actually quite controversial.

First of all, Lippi's 4-3-3 tactical personnel arrangement has worried many people, in this game, Uzbekistan cannot lose, they are 4 points behind South Korea, and the Chinese team is three points ahead of South Korea, and the room for choice is much more calm than Uzbekistan and South Korea.

Some "football emperors" on the Internet, even sports influencers and football insiders think that China should play a safer 4-2-3-1, and it is completely possible to let the Uzbekistan team attack, and then wait for the opportunity to counterattack.

The 4-3-3 style of play is a bit too risky.

Secondly, the old captain Zheng Zhi not only did not appear in the starting list, but also did not even arrange the eighteen-man squad.

This is even more surprising than Lippi's 4-3-3 style of play.

Although at the subsequent press conference, the spokesman of the national team explained that Zheng Zhi was unable to play because of a strain in training, but from the reports and video materials given by the media, it can be seen that Zheng Zhi is completely able to walk on his own, and it is estimated that there is a slight strain, but the injury is not serious.

According to the thoughts of the vast majority of fans and insiders, unless Zheng Zhi has a serious injury, as the captain of the team, the leader of the locker room, the most stable in the team, and the most experienced in the game, how can he appear in the eighteen-man squad.

For example, in the first official match of the national team against the cartel after Lippi took over, when the team could not attack for a long time, it was Zheng Zhi who stepped forward and organized a successful attack, breaking the deadlock of the game, allowing the team to score a goal to take the lead, and finally won the game smoothly.

In the next round of 12, as long as Zheng Zhi played, the Chinese team won, and the loss to Iran had a lot to do with his inability to play.

In the match against Uzbekistan that decided whether the Chinese team could qualify early, almost everyone thought that Zheng Zhi would at least appear on the bench on the sidelines.

In real history, Zheng Zhi is indeed the mainstay of the Chinese team in the top 12.

Zhang Sheng, who has been paying attention to the national team, probably knows the reason why Zheng Zhi's body is a little unbearable now.

Since Zhang Sheng came to this timeline, in addition to the emergence of giants like the Longteng team, so that Evergrande is not as easy to win the championship as in real history, a large number of excellent players have also flowed out of the Longteng team, objectively strengthening several strong teams in the Super League that want to do something, Zheng Zhi as the captain and absolute main force of Evergrande, the game is more intense, and the task of "common progress" brought by the system has benefited the Chinese Super League teams.

Even if Zheng Zhi is born with good physical fitness, no matter how self-disciplined he is, and how rich his experience is in distributing physical fitness in the game, he is actually more tired and difficult to play than in real history.

Since the second half of last season, Zheng Zhi has been injured many times, and the recovery effect is not ideal, which is not unrelated to these reasons.

After all, he is 37 years old.

These problems were also mentioned by many commentators and guests who were responsible for commenting on the game.

In view of the importance of this game, in the past, the live broadcast party would open the live broadcast program at most one hour before the game, but this time, multiple platforms started the live broadcast early, and the national team bus was ready to depart from the hotel, and it officially entered the program.

During the pre-game analysis that lasted for more than two hours, the program team and the guests were very well prepared.

In addition to the tactical and personnel analysis of this game, PV Sports also made a short documentary - Qualifying Day, interviewing the parties involved in the qualification of the Chinese team in 2001, and even Milu was interviewed abroad, which shows the importance of the program team.

All these people interviewed, including Milu, were optimistic, and everyone generally believed that the Chinese team had no problem qualifying this time, considering that the 2001 round was also one round ahead of schedule, and they all put forward a sense of historical repetition of the will of God.

After the documentary was broadcast, the time card was very good, and all the players of the Chinese team warmed up, exactly 10 minutes before the game, which allowed the players' body temperature to be maintained until the game was played immediately.

After the players easily returned to the dressing room to get their gear in order, Lippi took over the turf.

Clapped his hands gently, not loud, but as if the shepherd blew the whistle in his hand, all the members of the national team turned their eyes to Lippi.

Lippi was satisfied with the respect that everyone held for him.

'Lads, the game is about to start and I want everyone to know what it means. Different from previous games, Lippi's remarks this time were very solemn, "The World Cup is the dream of countless players. And in this country, the motherland of our team, that is the dream of countless fans. It's been sixteen years since they last entered the World Cup. ”

While talking, while waiting for the translator to translate, Lippi turned his head and asked Li Gang directly in English: "You have experienced the whole process of the last World Cup, can you tell me how you felt at that time." ”

Li Gang had obviously rehearsed with Lippi in advance, and the former had no sense of surprise when asked: "That qualifying was in my hometown, and the moment we qualified that night was the best moment of my life." ”

"Not only me, but I believe that it was also one of the best days of the football career of the Chinese fans. Li Gang continued to recall excitedly, "Everyone should have seen or experienced the grand occasion at that time, and it can be described as four: universal celebration! I think the same is true for the Italians, right? Mr. Head Coach." ”

On the topic thrown by Li Gang, Lippi nodded and said, "Yes." Even though the Italian national team has won four World Cups, every time it is a World Cup qualifier, all Italians will put in all the effort and passion, otherwise the consequences will be unpredictable. ”

"Because everybody knows that they represent a country. Lippi said almost word for word, "So, boys, you are fighting for 1.3 billion Chinese." ”

Lippi's words were full of motivation for the players, but what he never expected was that he would become a prophecy, and later the Italian team was really eliminated by Sweden in the play-off stage and failed to qualify for the final stage of the World Cup in Russia.

Of course, that's an afterthought.

In the locker room at this time, all the national team players are full of pride in winning glory for the country.

The emotions have been mobilized by Lippi.

"Of course, don't be too nervous. Lippi was also afraid that the players would go too far, "Now we are in a better position than them in the table, we have won at their home stadium before, we are better than them. As long as we do not underestimate the enemy or fear war, I believe that we will be the ultimate victors. And all of us will also be remembered by the fans and Chinese football. ”

After Lippi finished speaking, Zheng Zhi, as the captain, stood up.

"As you can see, I can't play in today's game. Zheng Zhi patted the back of his thigh lightly, "This game is up to everyone." ”

After speaking, Zheng Zhi bowed deeply to everyone.

For this old captain, who has always been calm and serious and unsmiling, the players in the national team are generally in awe and awe, and everyone is a little at a loss for a while when they see his rare such emotional fluctuating behavior.

As the second captain of the team who was promoted by Lippi to maintain the balance of the team, Li Yun, a player of the Longteng system, was the captain of this game.

Even if Li Yun is now the main player of the Bundesliga Champions League team, he does not dare to underestimate an old-timer like Zheng Zhi who has played in the Premier League, a top European competition.

"Captain......", he quickly stood up, trying to comfort the other party.

Zheng Zhi straightened his waist and raised his hand to wait for himself to finish: "Once, in 2002, I missed the World Cup. Thirteen years have passed since my first World Cup qualifier in 2004 and this is my fourth. There are only thirteen years in a person's life, and I can't wait another four years. He looked at his teammates sincerely, "This should be my last attempt, usually you have given me a lot of support as a captain, and now my wish is entrusted to everyone." ”

"Captain!", in order to avoid Zheng Zhi's embarrassment, Li Yun eagerly took over the conversation, "Don't worry, we are a team, no matter what, the pursuit of victory is the goal of all of us, and victory also belongs to everyone in our team." ”

The captain and vice-president of the team have expressed their attitude, as the head coach, Lippi felt that the pre-match encouragement had had had an effect, he raised his wrist to look at the time of his watch, clapped his hands again, and called everyone over: "Li Yun said very well, the victory belongs to all of us." The game is about to start, so get ready. ”

At the manager's command, the team also began to check their equipment one last time to make final preparations for the upcoming game.

When everyone was about to enter the players' tunnel, Lippi stopped Nie Jiang alone and motioned for everyone to go first.

"Nie. Lippi grabbed Nie Jiang seriously, "You are from Jiangcheng, today's game is also in Jiangcheng, if you can qualify today, like Coach Li Gang, you will celebrate in your hometown, this is a dream moment for countless players." You're an important part of the team's attack, you have a lot of quality and you have the potential to be a top player. Tonight, it's your time to perform. ”

Old man Lippi said as he shook Nie Jiang's shoulder vigorously, looking very excited.

Nie Jiang replied extremely sincerely: "I will, Mr. Head Coach." I'm going to do my best to finish this fight and win." ”

In history, in 2019, when he led the national team to play the World Preliminaries for the second time, in order to make the players tense their nerves, he once pushed Wei Shihao hard when explaining, and the players next to him were a little frightened.

In order to make the players nervous, the old man has always worked hard.

"The players are already in the tunnel. Huang Jianxiang, who was in charge of the broadcast commentary, was also shocked at this time, "It seems that everyone's expressions are very relaxed, Wu Lei is still greeting Akhmedov, and the pair of club teammates are going to face off in the national team today." ”

"In fact, there are a lot of people in this Uzbekistan team who know about the Chinese team. In the starting list, not to mention Akhmedov, who plays in Shanghai SIPG, Ismenov, who plays in Changchun Yatai, Guangbei Jingguo An, there are two Klimets and Sergeyev. Su Dong, who partnered with Huang Jianxiang, looked at the manuscript in his hand and said, "Their veteran Jeparov, as a two-time Asian Footballer of the Year, has many records against China. For them, the Chinese team does not have too many secrets. ”

"Definitely. It's a pity that Zheng Zhi, the captain of our national football team, was unable to play, and he and Jeparov are real contemporaries. Actually, we are very familiar with this team. Huang Jianxiang went on to say, "Defensive counterattacks have been a tactical feature of the Uzbek national team for so many years, and at the same time, their players work hard, the players have good physical fitness and strong impact. It's very distinctive all over Asia, you look at a couple of their frontcourt players, Bikmaev, Shukurov are all such tall players. ”

"Before the game, Coach Lippi said that although it was a very important and difficult game, he still hoped that the two sides could give a good matchup. A smile appeared at the corner of Su Dong's mouth, "This is the old man poking at the other party and asking the other party to attack it." ”

At this moment, the FIFA fair play song sounded, the game was about to start, and they were ready to start playing the national anthem.

As soon as the national anthem of Uzbekistan was played, the game reached its first climax, when the national anthem of the People's Republic of China sounded, and the 45,000 fans who were packed into the stadium stood up and sang the national anthem loudly.

"The competition has officially begun. After the national anthem, the captains of both sides finished the procedure, the referee's whistle sounded, Huang Jianxiang said, "The starting lineup of the Chinese team in this game is goalkeeper No. 1 Zeng Cheng, four defenders Li Xuepeng, Li Yun, Du Zhenyu, Zhang Linpeng lined up from left to right, the combination of midfield is relatively rare, Ding Huaiyi is a fixed left side, because Zheng Zhi can not play, Wu Xi is also injured and did not enter the national football squad, the back is Xu Mingyu who plays for Lexus in the Portuguese League, and the right midfielder is Hao Junmin. On the front line, Nie Jiang is in the center, Qin Minghao is on the left, and Wu Lei is on the right. This should be the strongest forward combination in the country. ”

"There was a discussion before the game when we got the squad. After Huang Jianxiang then introduced the starting lineup of the Uzbekistan team, Su Dong began to interact with the other party, "What do you think of the two changes of Du Zhenyu on the defensive line and Hao Junmin in the midfield?"

"In general, there are pros and cons. Ding Huaiyi, Xu Mingyu and Hao Junmin's three midfielders, the technical ability is absolutely sufficient. Huang Jianxiang analyzed, "The three of them are known for their delicate foot skills. And three people, the first two are playing in Europe, and the latter also has experience in Europe. In terms of quality, it is not worse than the opponent's midfielders, but I think that the opponent's midfielder is only Akhmedov and the three of them are of the same level. ”

"But the shortcomings of these three are also obvious, that is, they are not the kind of players with strong hardness, whether it is physical confrontation or speed against the opposing full-back, there is not much advantage. This needs to be seen in action in the game...... , look at this ball first!" Huang Jianxiang added.

"Kick the door!!!!" Huang Jianxiang was still talking, and Su Dong's standard voice sounded when he was concerned about the situation on the field.