The reasons for being so valued by public opinion are complex.

In the history of Chinese football, if there is one of the most famous X's in "X-phobia", it is South Korea.

Judging from the 33 historical head-to-head records of the two teams of China and South Korea according to FIFA statistics, the Chinese team is at an absolute disadvantage with 2 wins, 11 draws and 20 losses, in recent years, China and South Korea have met each other, and the senior national football team is difficult to find a win, the most recent meeting was the first round of the top 12 last year, the Chinese team lost 0-3 away to the South Korean team, and the last time the Chinese team won South Korea was in the 2010 East Asian Cup, when the Chinese team led by Gao Hongbo swept the South Korean team with the same score of 3-0, which is also a rare commendable game in the history of Chinese football。

If it is only the relationship between the winners and losers of the two national football teams, China will not pay so much attention to it, and like other rivals in world football, football is often entangled with some other things, beyond the level of sports competition.

In the same global village of the world, in the same East Asian monster house, the relationship between the suzerainty and the vassal state for thousands of years, the Korean War that was endlessly debated, and later the vassal state left the former far behind in the economy, and the gap is not small so far, and the inferiority of the vassal state for thousands of years has been fully "released" in the leading decades, so that the two countries have countless entanglements that cannot be sorted out.

The kind of superiority of the poor who get carried away after getting rich, and the Korean doves that occupy the magpie's nest of traditional Chinese culture that circulate everywhere on the Internet. When the Chinese, who have gradually begun to recover their national strength, are extremely unhappy, and when the Chinese, who have begun to overtake in many aspects, are gradually able to tease the Koreans with the attitude of "your uncle is still your uncle", backward football has become an eternal pain.

In addition to this, there is an even more important off-field factor in this game - Sadd.

Although countless people, including FIFA, have always emphasized that sports know no borders and football has nothing to do with politics, a series of riotous operations by the state, and countless businesses that follow the trend and even hype - such as the highly sought after Weilong spicy strips that throw out "the nation is the nation after all" when Lotte is on the shelves - have raised this game to the height of "winning glory for the country" and "national sinners".

Countless self-media in China have hyped up this game, but various official media have never mentioned THAAD, they are just using various actions to prepare for this must-win game.

Shonan Star City, which is responsible for hosting the game, spent more than 60 million yuan to upgrade the hardware and software of the Helong Sports Center, and they used new high-grade turf, upgraded the sand layer and drainage equipment under the turf, and replaced the seats in the stands, so that the Chinese team can have a good playing field and Chinese fans have a comfortable viewing condition.

At the same time, during the competition, the national football team will stay in the hotel to prepare for the game, the camp will be suspended, the press studio and press conference hall will be renovated, and the tables and chairs will also be newly installed recently. And in the infield, a new giant electronic display has also been hung.

It can be said that the local government has done everything it can.

The external conditions are in place, and the team is also preparing for the game in an orderly manner.

As an experienced veteran, Lippi said the most to the players in today's tactical arrangements and drills before the game, "Well done, yes, you are the strongest in Asia." ”

He never chatters with his players about heavy words such as "heavy responsibilities and hard work", even if many managers attach great importance to things like letting players eat early on time, Lippi has been extraordinarily tolerant these days: "I have to let the players in the AFC Champions League rest for a few more days." ”

Lippi's attitude made his players look extra confident, and Zheng Zhi, as the captain of the national team, expressed the momentum of wanting to score points: "There will definitely be pressure, but which game is not pressure." I prefer that this pressure to be converted into motivation. Hopefully, we can get enough points to lay a good foundation for the next games. ”

Li Yun and Qin Minghao, who are regarded as the "leaders" of the team, as the core of the team's defense, said: "I have met several foreign players in the Bundesliga and South Korea (referring to Augsburg's Korean duo Ji Dongwon and Gu Zizhe), they are very strong, but I believe I can solve these problems." ”

There's a reason why Li Yun can say these things casually without fear of being ridiculed, and as the main centre-back of the second-ranked team in the Bundesliga, it is impossible not to have enough self-confidence against an attacking opponent who is ranked thirteenth in the Bundesliga.

As for the other core player of the Chinese team, Nie Jiang is even more arrogant: "In the game against the South Korean team, I only lost the last game, and this time, in our home stadium, I will definitely get back." ”

His words made the fans a little ridiculous, it is true that in the previous national youth, national youth and national Olympic games, Nie Jiang's team remained undefeated, but compared to this, the fans couldn't help but laugh when they saw Nie Jiang's expression that the last loss was just an accident.

In fact, the answer of the three players was exactly the answer when all the members of the national team participated in the official event of the Chinese Football Association China Team three days before the game, and interacted with the fans and guests on the spot.

Their statement gave the fans a lot of confidence.

"If you win this one, you can lose the rest!" was the most liked comment in the media.

"Son Heung-min can't play, if we can't even beat a team that can draw in Syria, it's too much to say. ”

The confidence of the fans is not only shown online, but also in the market.

The tickets for this battle between China and South Korea are divided into 6 grades: 180 yuan, 380 yuan, 480 yuan, 580 yuan, 880 yuan and VIP1280 yuan, compared with the "battle of China and South Korea" (160 yuan - 1260 yuan) in November last year, the ticket price of this game has increased slightly. But since the tickets went on sale on March 1, the vast majority of fans have been faced with the word "sold out".

In order to ensure the fairness of ticket sales, the organizing committee adopted the ticket purchase method of identity verification system, and each ID card can only buy a maximum of two tickets, but there are no remaining tickets for sale of tickets of all grades.

Even if a few of them fall into the hands of scalpers, the price of tickets has tripled, and in their hands, a ticket of 380 yuan can only be purchased for at least 1,000 yuan.

With a temperature of about ten degrees and continuous light rain, the wet and cold weather in Star City is in stark contrast to the fiery enthusiasm of the fans.

The concern in China is also felt in South Korea.

South Korean company Lotte suffered a heavy blow in China, because it provided space for THAAD, and their 99 stores in China were pressured by various inspections such as fire safety and food safety, and 71 stores were forced to close in one go, and the rest of the stores were also dying.

Lotte, who is directly related to the person, has a splitting headache, and other aspects that are incidental are also affected. South Korea has always been regarded as a popular tourist destination by the Chinese people, and it is said that tourism revenue has been "cut in half" year-on-year.

Against this backdrop, South Korea, where nationalism has been on the rise, also attaches great importance to this game.

"The Chinese are no opponent. ”

"The garbage Chinese league will only spend money to buy foreign aid. ”

"The players who played overseas don't have to come back, just rely on our K-League players to play in China. ”

Complaints about Chinese football abound in South Korean media comments before the game.

The vast majority of South Korean fans believe that South Korea will definitely win, and many people have even begun to think about what to do if they win the game: "If China loses, will it give South Korea more revenge, and the players should protect themselves." ”

Of course, with South Korea's national character, the warning is also sufficient: "If you lose to China in this environment, you will really riot." It looks more serious than losing in the Korea-Japan War. ”

"If you lose to China, live there and smog to your heart's content!"

Even the Korean Football Association, an organization representing the government, has issued posters insulting China, and in the poster they released for the South Korean team, a giant panda kneeling in front of the Taiji Tiger, which is much smaller than the Taiji Tiger. Such explicit posters were rare before.

Unlike Lippi, who struggled to maintain the relaxed atmosphere of his team, South Korea coach Stillik was extremely confident: "In the past, in the first leg, we have no reason to lose confidence, the goal is three points. ”

Indeed, if the strength between the two teams is judged by the past records, South Korea is undoubtedly much higher, and he has never lost in the World Preliminary Tournament and Olympic Trials, and the 3:0 in the first leg gave him enough confidence.

From the perspective of players, the four players who play in the five major leagues, Augsburg double stars - Chi Dongyuan and Gu Zizhe, the "Asian King" - Tottenham's Son Xingmin, and the absolute main force of the Premier League team - Swansea's Ji Chengyong, this quality is even higher than several Chinese foreign players.

At the same time, many Korean players play in the Chinese Super League, which also proves that the overall strength of the Korean team is higher than that of Chinese players, otherwise why are all Korean players coming to China, rather than Chinese players going to South Korea as foreign aid.

FIFA's ranking of the two teams has also been corroborated from another aspect, although the current Chinese team has won consecutive games and gained a lot of points, but there are too many debts in the past, and it can only rank 72nd in the world and 6th in Asia, while the South Korean team is ranked 40th in the world, second only to the Iranian team in Asia, 32 places higher than the Chinese team.

The last and most brutal way to do this is to compare the value of the players on both sides.

According to the most authoritative German transfer data, the total value of the South Korean team is 61.53 million euros, and the total value of the Chinese team is 37.81 million euros.

In fact, there is a lot of controversy about the total value data of the Chinese team. Some people think that there is still a part of the premium more or less, because of the desire of the European league for powerful Chinese players, their value is generally inflated; some fans think that it is because there are few Chinese players to play in Europe, and the Chinese team's past performance is also poor, and it is natural that the price is lowered.

But in any case, from all aspects, the overall strength of the complete South Korea should be higher than that of the complete Chinese team, and Son Heung-min's absence can be said to be the biggest variable in this game.

While all the media outlets took all of the above comparisons to the extreme, the regular press conference of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs on March 23 pushed the attention of the game to the climax.

At the press conference, a South Korean reporter asked Foreign Ministry spokesperson Meng Ying: According to reports, China has deployed a large number of police forces for the match between the Chinese team and the South Korean team in the World Cup qualifiers to be held in Changsha tonight. Is this true, and is this due to fears that there may be a conflict after the football match due to the current Sino-South Korean relations?

Although Meng Ying answered this question with the most diplomatic rhetorical answer, it was also a rare time in the history of Chinese football to link a game with the relationship between two countries.

At 19:35 on March 23, Beijing time, the sixth round of Group A of the 2018 Russia World Cup Asian Top 12 matches between China and South Korea began.

In a long whistle from Australia's referee Peter Green, Nie Jiang returned the ball to his teammates, and the Chinese team kicked off first.

In this game, Lippi, who is determined to win, directly gave the starting line of 433, Nie Jiang, Wu Lei, Ding Huaiyi's three forwards, followed by Qin Minghao, Xu Mingyu and Zheng Zhi's three midfielders, and the four defenders are Li Yun, Feng Xiaoting, Zhang Linpeng and Jiang Zhipeng, and the goalkeeper is Zengcheng who has just recovered from injury at the beginning of the season.

South Korea also lined up in a 4-3-3 formation, with two Chinese Super League players Hong Chung and Jang Hyun-so partnering in central defenders, Kim Jin-so and Lee Yong from Jeonbuk Hyundai on the left and right sides of the back, three midfielders from left to right, Ko Myung-jin, Goo Ji-cheol and Ji Seong-yong, and the forward line consisting of Nam Tae-hee, Lee Ting-kyo and Ji Dong-won.

Lippi gave up the 4-2-3-1, which was more balanced in attack and defense, and put on Wu Lei, a fast and impactful striker, who made it clear that he wanted to score points at home.

As many as four players in the midfield who can take the ball in the midfield to organize and dispatch, Lippi tries to accumulate the ball in the midfield and the strong points of regional linkage ability to form a solid ball transfer network in the midfield, through the continuous organization and scheduling of the midfield, and finally complete the tactical vision of penetrating the Korean team's defense line through the ground technical attack.

Judging from the tactical execution of the actual game, this is indeed the case.

The starting midfielders kept a close distance from each other, and almost all of them did not have a fixed position (including center forward Nie Jiang). In the offensive organization and the initiation of the defensive transfer, Qin Minghao, Xu Mingyu, Zheng Zhi, and Ding Huaiyi can all take the ball and respond, and at the same time, the continuous transposition ensures the success rate of the defensive transfer to the greatest extent. More control players in the midfield will be better able to counter the South Korean midfielder from the level of taking the ball and reducing turnovers.

In other words, Lippi believes that his tactics can be matched against South Korea in midfield, and it seems that his praise for his players and confidence in his victory are not just words.

In the second minute of the first half, the Chinese team relied on Ding Huaiyi's very imaginative outside instep pass on the left side to pass the ball to Qin Minghao, the front of the Chinese team, who and Ding Huaiyi's tacit understanding was obviously beyond the expectations of the South Korean team.

It can be said that this is a brand new version arranged by Lippi for the Chinese team.